Now THAT is How You Bounce Back – Bulls 117, Mavericks 101

Good teams learn from their mistakes, and that is exactly what the Chicago Bulls did on Sunday afternoon.

The Bulls were up by 16 points with 4:40 seconds to go in Friday night’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, and they found themselves in a very similar situation against the Luka Doncic-led Mavericks today. However, instead of folding under the pressure, we saw this same Bulls team limit the turnovers, tighten up their defense, and walk away with a 16-point victory.

Even more impressive, they managed to pull off this victory with a combined 10 points from their two backcourt bucket-getters.

In relief, Lauri Markkanen scored 29 points and hauled in 10 rebounds, picking up right where he left off prior to his seven-game absence, playing aggressively while shooting 10-19 from the field with only two made 3’s. The Bulls core of veterans picked up the rest of the Bulls scoring duties, with Garrett Temple finishing the night with a season-high 21 points.

The entire bench finished with a double-digit positive plus-minus, but a major tip of the hat should be given to Otto Porter, who scored 12 of his 14 points in the 4th quarter on a perfect 6-6 from the field.

https://twitter.com/chicagobulls/status/1350933539471155200?s=20

All things considered, I’m not sure there is a win this season that better demonstrates the improvement this group has made as an all-around team.

An argument can be made for the Trail Blazers victory, but there is something about this bounce-back effort that kind of solidifies the changes we’ve seen thus far. They found a way to win without the help of their two best scores and relied on their solid group of veterans to keep their head screwed on straight. LaVine found a way to impact the game without scoring the basketball (10 assists); Wendell Carter Jr. recorded a career-high 5 steals; Markkanen had a double-double; Thaddeus Young did a little bit of everything (15pts, 3ast, 3reb, 2stl, 2blk); and the team finished with 32 assists overall. In other words, the Bulls didn’t rely on hero ball or luck. They simply played together.

Sitting at 5-8, this team now gets to prove they can carry over positive momentum. The next 12 games for the Bulls are filled with a chunk of winnable games. We’ll talk more about that, as well as more takeaways from this game tomorrow. Go ahead and just enjoy the rest of your Sunday, and watch some football!

written by

Elias Schuster is the Lead Chicago Bulls writer at Bleacher Nation. He started with BN full-time in 2019 immediately after graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with a degree in Journalism (yes, he started with the Jim Boylen Era). Since joining, Elias has been the driving force behind Bulls and NBA content for both the site and social accounts. You can follow him on Twitter/X @Schuster_Elias.

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