The Chicago Bulls (20-6) could do no wrong on offense against the Milwaukee Bucks (10-13). The Bucks entered the game on a impressive three-game winning streak, but looked lost against a hot-shooting Bulls team.
Chicago jumped ahead early, carrying a 17-point lead to the end of the first quarter. They quickly parlayed that early advantage into a 67-43 lead at halftime, but afterwards found themselves unable to fully pull away as the Bucks drew nearly even in the second half. Nonetheless, the Bulls found themselves comfortably ahead, content to shoot for threes and dish out fouls.
The story of the game took place beyond the three-point arc for both teams. While the Bulls shot an impressive 14 for 30 (.467), the Bucks could not find a rhythm, hitting only 1 of their 12 attempts (.083).
The Bulls were also heavily buoyed by the return of SF Luol Deng, who landed 21 points, snatched 9 rebounds and played a team-leading 41 minutes in his first game back. The South Sudanese dynamo was recently diagnosed with a torn wrist ligament, but has elected to play through the pain.
PG Derrick Rose had another excellent game, scoring 26 points while dishing out 13 assists and collecting 7 rebounds. He and Joakim Noah (14 pts), C.J. Watson (13 pts) and the three-happy Kyle Korver (18 pts) all hit double digits in points.
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