There were moments in that terrible first quarter Friday when the Knicks turned the ball over because they couldn’t decide who was throwing the inbounds pass, when Chicago’s mascot Benny the Bull unloaded two cans of silly string on the head of a Knicks fan, and when NY missed its first 10 shots.
Advertisement
Toronto (21-14) failed to sweep a three-game homestand thanks to Sunday’s 115-113 loss to Chicago.
Toronto Raptors’ DeMar DeRozan is blocked by Chicago Bulls’ Jimmy Butler during second half NBA basketball action in Toronto on Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. His biggest shot occurred with 30 seconds remaining in the game which gave the team their first lead of the second half.
The Bulls coach was also full of praise for the way his team responded in the second half, commenting that the four-game winning streak that his club is now on closed out “a very important week for us”.
“It was an unbelievable performance by Jimmy”, Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said. The Bulls led by as many as seven and the Raptors led by five but the first quarter ended at 26-26.
Chicago played without Derrick Rose, who missed his second consecutive game due to right hamstring tendinitis. When Butler came out into the second quarter, he was pure rage mode as he torched the Raptors.
Dwyane Wade, who came off the bench for just the 10th time in his 13-year career, had 10 points and seven assists. “We may situationally or maybe philosophically go back, I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see that happen”.
“We tried everybody and everything, couldn’t get him stopped”, coach Dwane Casey said.
Forwards Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic scored 17 points apiece for the Bulls.
Butler’s three-point basket with 30.9 seconds left in the game gave the Bulls their first lead since early in the second quarter. “That’s exactly what I said [when I found out]”.
The Bulls were able to fight their way back from down 15 points as a result of Jimmy’s brilliance, and he is really backing up his talk about becoming a better leader. They want to have players like Lowry and DeRozan going for 22 and 24 points on the day, respectively, while guys like Jonas Valanciunas (8 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks) protect the paint. Portis made two free throws, Mirotic connected from deep and Butler had a driving layup to close out a 20-6 run that made it 97-79 with 4:48 left. Toronto is following a trend in which it wins when it holds the opponent to fewer than 100 points and loses whenever allowing triple digits.
Moore tied the game in the final minute with a putback of a rare Butler miss.
Raptors: The Raptors embark on a five-game road trip, which includes an NBA Global Game in London against the Orlando Magic on January 14.
Advertisement
Next up for the Bulls is a game against the division-rival Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday.
