Chicago Bulls: 3 Takeaways from the 108-91 victory over the Hornets

The Chicago Bulls bounced back from their embarrassing performance against the Cavaliers with a double-digit victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday night. It was a much-needed win for the Bulls as they continue to play shorthanded in the absence of Zach LaVine and more recently, Troy Brown Jr.

The win puts the Bulls back into the 11th spot in the Eastern Conference, just one half of a game behind the Washington Wizards. They are tied with the Toronto Raptors record-wise, but the Bulls hold the tiebreaker between those two.

With an absolutely brutal schedule remaining, the Bulls needed to get the win in this game. It will be tough to carry the momentum considering their remaining difficulty of schedule.

The Bulls face a lot of playoff teams in their remaining games, starting with the Miami Heat on Saturday night. It is an uphill battle to even make the play in-game for the Bulls, but anything is possible in today’s NBA.

Takeaways from the Chicago Bulls win over the Hornets: 4 Quarters of Defense

I can’t recall the last time this happened for the Bulls. Tonight they played defense for the majority of all four quarters. Granted, it came against a sputtering Hornets offense that had no rhythm and could not find one all night, but still, that is progress for the Bulls defensively.

The Hornets highest-scoring quarter was the fourth, where they finished with 24 points. It feels like every game for as long as I can remember, the Bulls have allowed at least one 30 plus point quarter to their opponent. Not tonight.

Any other team would not get too hyped on this achievement, but these Bulls have been unable to stop anyone recently.

Charlotte shot just 8-31 (25.8 percent) from behind the arc. One game after getting exposed by the Cavaliers guards the Bulls held the Hornets guards in check and made them non-factors in this one. Devonte’ Graham and Terry Rozier combined to shoot 11-29 from the field.