The wildest game of the regular season, by far, for second-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Chicago Bulls arrived on the road north of the border on the night of Oct. 25. As Donovan and the Bulls looked to move their record to a spotless 4-0 on the season so far, the Toronto Raptors posed a bigger challenge than expected in the second half.
The Bulls went into this game as a narrow two-point favorite on the road at Scotiabank Arena. But that didn’t stop the Bulls from having an explosive run in the second and early in the third quarter. Fortunes turned, though, for the Bulls in the fourth quarter as the Raptors made a very spirited run on both ends of the floor.
At one point in the third quarter, the Bulls held a sizable 20-point lead as it looked like the game was in complete control for this squad. Even at the end of the third quarter, the Bulls were still ahead of the Raptors by a dozen points.
Chicago Bulls struggle to close out Raptors in narrow 111-108 road win
A Raptors rally did make things interesting, though, in the fourth quarter. In fact, it made things way too close for comfort for the Bulls down the stretch. The Raptors closed the lead to single digits around the halfway point of the fourth quarter. And it went back and forth from then until the end of the game.
Yet, the Bulls were able to hang on, in the end, thanks to a missed three-point from standout Raptors point guard Fred VanFleet. That helped the Bulls escape Toronto with a win by the final score of 111-108 to move to 4-0 on the season.
Here’s a look into two studs, and one dud, for the Bulls from this key close win over the Raptors.