The Bulls lost their third-straight game on Saturday night, as Collin Sexton made a potential game-winning layup as time expired.
The Chicago Bulls continue to find ways to lose, collecting their third-straight loss on Saturday night. Chicago lost 125-124 to the Memphis Grizzlies, with guard Collin Sexton making a potential game-winning layup as time expired.
Chicago was engaged in a back-and-forth affair, with many lead changes despite the Grizzlies playing a mostly young and untested group, similar to the one the Bulls recently beat 132-107 in Chicago.
On Saturday night things were very different from the first matchup and the Grizzlies can mostly thank rookie Cedric Coward (24 points on 10-19 shooting) and their bench unit, which produced three double digit scorers, including Stacey King favorite DeJon Jerreau. But all scorers were outdone on the evening by Matas Buzelis, who continued a great run of play as a primary scoring optionBuzelis scored a game-high 29 points to go along with 10 rebounds, 3 assists (4 turnovers), a steal and 3 blocks.
Despite the Bulls losing a game that they probably should have won on paper, the returns on Buzelis are great as the season winds down. Per Bulls PR, this was the first game of Buzelis career in which he had at least 25 points and 10 rebounds, and important mark to reach for a player who needs to focus on hitting the glass as his game matures.
At the end of the day, Buzelis' development should be the Bulls' only, or at least main, concern at this point of the season.
Speaking of main concerns, the other Bulls franchise cornerstone had himself another big night of filling up the stat sheet. Josh Giddey finished with 18 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists, his 13th triple double of the season. He's now tied for 18th on the all-time triple-double list (John Havlicek).
Giddey did an excellent job of setting up everyone for easy baskets all night despite the Bulls shooting poorly from 3-point range (30% on 33 attempts). Giddey was looking off defenders, using his eyes to create windows for players like Lachlan Olbrich, allowing them to get easy opportunities to score. Olbrich finished with 8 points (4-8 FT), 7 rebounds and 2 assists.
The Bulls have nothing to celebrate--unless they're still obsessing over every single loss for draft odds, which, maybe a little too late there--but it does continue to look like Billy Donovan is the "guard whisperer." Collin Sexton continues to score at a high clip in March, finishing with 26 points (6-14 FG) off the bench in 30 minutes. He was joined by Giddey's 18 points, and Tre Jones' 19 points, in terms of Chicago's efficient backcourt scoring on Saturday night.
Chicago's high-scoring backcourt trio and Buzelis were a large part of the Bulls winning the fourth quarter 36-27.
But as the Bulls were streaking down the court with time expiring, the ball went from Tre Jones to Sexton, who made a layup as the clock had just expired a very brief moment before. It was an odd way to lose a game, but the Bulls will have a chance to bounce back and stop their slide when they take on the San Antonio Spurs on national TV (March 30th).