Chicago Bulls at Orlando Magic: Instant Analysis, Highlights

The Chicago Bulls grabbed a 100-92 win on Tuesday night off of a vintage performance from Dwyane Wade. It was a rough outing for the Orlando Magic and the Bulls capitalized, with encouraging contributions across the board. Read on for instant reactions from the PAE team.

The Flash still has some flashes.

It was a renaissance game for Dwyane Wade as the Chicago Bulls took down the Orlando Magic in the Amway Center 100-92. The star guard had 21 points and seven rebounds, not to mention seven steals on the game, just one shy of tying his career high. Jimmy Butler chimed in with 20 points of his own, and Cristiano Felicio posted his third career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Let’s go through the game from start to finish and look at some instant reactions.

First Quarter

The Bulls got off to a very low-energy start, missing six of their first seven attempts from the field. Even once they started sinking a few, their points were coming exclusively in isolation, with barely a single screen or cut to be found. Paul Zipser was once again the first Bull off the bench, and he continued to look intriguing. Maybe the Bulls’s drafting isn’t completely forsaken after all. One more good game and he’ll be in Magic Johnson’s conversation for sixth man of the year.

The Bulls also continued their recent trend of tweaking the rotation a lot from game to game with no rhyme or reason behind the changes. Jerian Grant was benched early for Rajon Rondo, while Michael Carter-Williams — the starter for the last couple of weeks — didn’t see a single minute in the first half. Doug McDermott also saw zero first quarter minutes.

The first quarter ended with the Bulls down 20-22. It was an ugly one.

Second Quarter

The story of the second quarter was the Bulls bench, as they scored 29 of the Bulls 52 first half points. The brunt of that scoring came from Cristiano Felicio and Doug McDermott. Watch this clip and tell me if you want Robin Lopez closing games for the Bulls.

Still not sure? Here’s one more for good measure.

The first half of the quarter was an alien looking Bulls squad with Rondo, Zipser, McDermott, Mirotic and Felicio all sharing the floor. However, this unit was unsurprisingly potent offensively since Rondo was surrounded by three passable 3-point shooters who provided enough breathing room for an NBA offense to run. What a novel concept.

The real marquee moment of the quarter took place when Doug McDermott recorded his 11th career block against former Bull CJ Watson. He also went 4-for-4 from 3-point range and led the team in scoring in the first half, but managing to block the shot of a player six inches shorter than him is honestly more impressive for Doug. Good job Doug.

Dwyane Wade picked up his game to close out the half with three consecutive stepback jumpers over Mario Hezonja. After starting the game 0-for-6, it was good to see Wade gather a little momentum. He also had five steals, which tied his season high. A quiet half for Jimmy Butler ended with a score of 52-49 with the Bulls in the lead.

Third Quarter

The starters came back after halftime, and the isos came back with them. The first half of the third quarter was nothing more than Wade, Jimmy and Taj Gibson alternating who would try to take their man one-on-one and score, and it sort of worked, with the Bulls keeping their lead all the way through the quarter.

We didn’t see a substitution until almost eight minutes into the quarter, with Rondo coming in for Dwyane Wade. Doug subbed in for  shortly after. After Neil Funk said on the Bulls broadcast that Elfrid Payton couldn’t score “if you locked him in a gym by himself,” Payton scored on consecutive possessions to cut the lead to one point.

Rondo is bad at defense, in case you needed further proof. A Nikola Mirotic block and an air balled 25-footer from Doug took us to the end of the quarter, Bulls up 78-73.

Fourth Quarter

Paul Zipser started the fourth quarter for the Bulls along with Rondo, Doug, Niko and Felicio. Despite the success they found in the second quarter, the Bulls managed only three points in almost four minutes of play.

The substitution of Wade for Rondo got things moving again, though. He had a nice three and followed it up with a classic lob to Felicio, then forced an Orlando timeout after sinking a difficult runner. Jimmy subbed in for Doug, and the lead ballooned to 12 points after a one-man fast break from Butler. It also helped that the Magic missed 12 straight 3-pointers in a row.

Bulls fans everywhere immediately became nervous that Chicago would be unable to finish the game since they’ve had trouble doing so this season, but luckily for them, the Magic couldn’t make up the distance, and a pretty forgettable game for the Bulls ended with a win, 100-92.

Post-Game Thoughts

Even though I’m still unsure why Fred Hoiberg feels the need to randomly rest low usage players like MCW and Zipser for entire games then play them heavy minutes the next time around, this was a fine effort from the Bulls. Either that or my standards are falling at a precipitous rate as the season progresses. Some elements of consistency are out of your control, and it’s important to tinker with lineups while the games don’t really matter, but come on Fred. You’ve gotta settle on something eventually. Players can’t succeed in their roles if they have no idea what those roles are.

The Bulls take on the Hawks tomorrow, here’s hoping they have better luck than last time.

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