Chicago Bulls: 2 studs, 1 dud, from pivotal win over Cavs

A win that was much-needed for second-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Chicago Bulls arrived on the night of Jan. 19 against the division foe Cleveland Cavaliers. As the Bulls were looking to prevent their losing streak from moving to five games, they got a nice double-digit win of their own over a rising division foe in the middle of this week.

With it feeling like the Bulls are getting healthier right now, the Bulls should be trending back up before too long. This comes after the Bulls were riding a four-game losing streak following their convincing double-digit loss coming out of the holiday weekend on Jan. 17 to the Memphis Grizzlies on the road.

The Bulls also had really disheartening losses in blowout fashion at the hands of the Golden State Warriors and Brooklyn Nets in the last week or so. It was really good, though, to see the Bulls snap this losing skid before it reached five games.

DeMar DeRozan helps the Chicago Bulls come out with a well-rounded effort to beat the Cavaliers on Jan. 19

That would’ve also put the Bulls in a position to really worry about either the Cavaliers or Milwaukee Bucks taking over the top spot in the Central Division standings.

In this game, the Bulls saw the return of point guard Alex Caruso. That proved to be decisive for the Bulls from the very outset, who did play better defense than most games during the losing streak on this night. The starting unit also took their performance up a notch in this game.

There are a lot of good signs to break down, which we will get into, from this win over the Cavs. But the momentum factor is also big here.

This win over the Cavs, which came by the final score of 117-104, also comes before a key meeting with the Bucks on Jan. 21.

With all of this in mind, here’s a look at the two studs and one dud from the Bulls’ win over the Cavs on Jan. 19.