A win over the Giannis Antetokounmpo-less Milwaukee Bucks is a win nonetheless.
Bookending the night with 33 points in the first and fourth quarters, the Chicago Bulls grabbed a 116-111 win at the United Center despite Damian Lillard returning from a calf injury and scoring a game-high 29 points.
Josh Giddey was the highlight of Chicago's night, posting his second triple-double in a Bulls uniform but doing so in dominant fashion with 23 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists. Giddey controlled the game from start to finish, leading Chicago's transition attack and finding a new level of defensive intensity.
But buried underneath Giddey's breakout game was a historic accomplishment for Nikola Vucevic.
Nikola Vucevic enters NBA record books
While Giddey led the Bulls in points, rebounds and assists in the win, Vucevic had a strong night of his own, finishing with 23 points, 13 rebounds (five of which came on the offensive end) and five assists. He was 10-of-24 from the field and 3-of-7 from deep.
Those three triples made him only the second player in NBA history, coincidentally along with Bucks center Brook Lopez, to score at least 16,000 points while making at least 800 threes.
Good stat from Bulls PR: Nikola Vučević became 2nd center in NBA history to tally at least 16,000 points and 800 3FGM in a career. Bucks Brook Lopez is other.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) December 29, 2024
The historic tally for Vooch speaks to his evolution as a player. The now-34-year-old didn't average even one 3-point attempt per game in a season until his sixth year in the NBA.
Prior to the 2020-21 campaign when he arrived in Chicago, the big man's best 3-point shooting season was 2018-19, when he shot 36.4 percent on 2.9 attempts a night with the Orlando Magic.
Since joining the Bulls, he's hoisted 1,574 threes. From 2012-2021, he shot 1,265.
This season is Vucevic's most efficient of his career, as he's averaging 20.7 points on 57.3 percent shooting from the field and 45.5 percent from beyond the arc.