Giddey-less Bulls Run Out of Gas on Wembanyama's Big Night

Michael Walton

Nov 11, 2025, 04:07

Michael Walton

Nov 11, 2025, 04:07

Updated at: Nov 11, 2025, 04:08

The Bulls played great offensively after a slow start, but a massive fourth quarter from the Spurs, and a signature moment of Victor Wembanyama's young career sank Chicago's hopes of picking up a win on Monday night.

Monday night saw the Chicago Bulls fight extremely hard and fall short against the San Antonio Spurs, who were, of course, led by the tremendous talent that is the 7-foot-4 Victor Wembanyama. In the Bulls loss, Wembanyama had a diverse statline of 38 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 blocks, and a steal. The Bulls were led by the backcourt of Kevin Huerter and Tre Jones on offense, who combined for 43 points and led the offense in the absence of the Bulls starting backcourt of Coby White and Josh Giddey.

This game showcased what an uphill battle it could be for this version of the Bulls to produce on offense, as they went down by a score of 12-4 with a little over nine minutes left in the first, leading to a quick trigger Billy Donovan timeout.

If the start of the game represented just how much the Bulls could struggle without their starting backcourt, the rest of the game was a showcase of just much adversity the Bulls could overcome when they play mistake-free basketball.

Chicago ended the night with just 12 turnovers, allowing them to eventually settle down on offense despite missing a player who leads the team with a 27.8% usage rate (per Basketball-Reference) in Josh Giddey.

Kevin Huerter was great for the Bulls in this one, putting on a clinic in terms of cutting and off-ball movement. His constant motion generated several clean looks for himself, and those same cuts drew in the help defense, often creating wide open looks for his teammates. He was constantly putting Chicago in advantageous situations, and even showed that he was not afraid to go right at Wembanyama off the dribble.

His activity off the ball was representative of the Bulls as a whole on Monday night, with every player doing their best job off-ball to ensure the Spurs couldn't just rest on their laurels.

Jones himself had 20 points, his third-straight game with 15+ points, as he continues to look like a new player in Chicago. He and Ayo Dosunmu were the leaders in encouraging the Bulls to attack the paint all night, with the duo combining to go 9-9 from the charity stripe in this one.

That aggression in attacking Wembanyama off the dribble was a big part in rattling the dominant Frechman to some degree early. He--much like the Bulls offense--settled down tremendously. Down the stretch the Bulls--much like they did in the Cleveland loss--saw what a true superstar looks like as Wembanyama led the Spurs to dominate the fourth quarter 32-19, including a late pair of 3-pointers from the 7-foot-4 big man to seal the deal.

Ultimately, Billy Donovan had no issues with the defense Vucevic played on the possession, but it was nonetheless the deciding shot as the Bulls weren't able to muster up a good look at the end. Chicago suffers their first three-game loss of the season, and looks for a bounce back win as they travel to Detroit to take on the Pistons on Wednesday.

Giddey-less Bulls Run Out of Gas on Wembanyama's Big Night