There are no (official) moral victories in the NBA, but the Chicago Bulls' six-point loss to the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night would count for one if there was such a thing.
There are no (official) moral victories in the NBA, but the Chicago Bulls' six-point loss to the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night would count for one if there was such a thing. The Bulls came into Tuesday night as a double-digit underdog to the Rockets, and instead competed hard all night in a game that had the most lead changes of any NBA game this season.
Despite the Bulls putting up an extremely impressive effort, they lost 119-113 to the Houston Rockets, mostly due to a fourth quarter that saw the Rockets get some timely shot-making from Jabari Smith Jr., one of two Houston players to make more than one 3-pointer on the evening.
For the Bulls, Tre Jones, and a surprisingly alert defense were the driving forces between the Bulls' success.
Jones got started early for the Bulls. He made a 3-pointer on his first shot from the field off of a pass from Nikola Vucevic, and it's as if the basket looked like an ocean to him from that point on. Jones ended the first half with 13 points, 7 assists, and 1 turnover on 5-6 FG. He was doing a great job of orchestrating the Bulls offense, getting clean looks for his teammates while still hunting for his own shot at the right moment.
If you expected Jones to cool off, you were mistaken as he went on to a career-high 34 points on 11-12 FG.
Throughout his incredible career-night, Jones made nine-straight FG. three straight made 3-pointers, and had five straight assists without a turnover.
Unfortunately for Chicago, Jones being such a dominant part of the first unit underscored how underwhelming their usually-impressive bench unit could looks sans Jones and Jalen Smith. The Bulls bench unit of Dalen Terry, Kevin Huerter, Ayo Dosunmu and Patrick Williams combined to shoot 8-27 FG (29.6%).
The Bulls almost survived the cold-shooting night from their bench with the combination of Jones' career night, another great performance from Matas Buzelis (19 points on 50% shooting, 6 rebounds), and a Houston squad unable to buy a basket from deep (7-24 from 3-point range).
Buzelis had a few possessions where he perhaps over-dribbled and got walled off, but mostly kept the ball moving and made quick decisions. Most importantly, he didn't back down all night while matching up with a future Hall of Famer for a chunk of the evening, which Billy Donovan gave him credit for. Donovan stated postgame, "..it was good to see him respond the way he did coming out of the first half going into the second half."
The Bulls complete the second half of a back-to-back set in Chicago on Wednesday night against the Utah Jazz.