Things started off hot, as the Chicago Bulls jumped to a 29-22 lead after one quarter against the Sacramento Kings. Over the next three quarters, however, not so good as the Kings dropped the Bulls 103-88, snapping their 6-0 road start.
The Bulls were outscored 81-59 after the first quarter and went the entire second and third periods without making a three-point shot. The short-handed Bulls were without Derrick Rose and Pau Gasol, and simply couldn’t score enough tonight despite getting another strong effort from Jimmy Butler who led the team with 23 points (11-18 FG), eight rebounds, and two steals.
Nobody else managed to score more than 12 points, and the Bulls’ bigs were in constant foul trouble all game long. Tonight was a combination of not having enough firepower, and not putting together a complete game. However, there’s no shame in this loss when you pit it up against the letdowns against Boston and Indiana earlier this season.
In fact, the Sacramento Kings are looking like the real deal this season. Which, is actually good news for Bulls because if the Kings make the playoffs out West, then their first round pick in the 2015 draft goes to Chicago via theLuol Deng trade. So if there’s a silver lining in the loss for Chicago, it’s that they’re in no jeopardy to miss the playoffs in the East, and the better the Kings, the better it is for Chicago.
And for the Kings to have success, it's pretty simple: they'll go as far as DeMarcus Cousins takes them. After a pedestrian first half where he had only 6 points on (2-8) shooting, Cousins roared back in the second half with 16 points on (7-11) shooting. He also hauled in 14 rebounds on the evening.Rudy Gay added 20 points on an efficient (7-11) shooting night, along with seven rebounds. And Darren Collison finished with a double-double providing 17 points and 12 dimes.
Flat out, the Kings out played the Bulls tonight, and the better team won. Sacramento shot 51.4 percent from the field, and although they only took six threes, they made four. The Kings also shot 85.2 percent (23-27) from the free-throw line.
The win puts Sacramento at (7-5) on the season, and drops Chicago to (8-4). Next up on the slate for the Bulls are the Portland Trailblazers, which will be a back-to-back game tomorrow night on ESPN at 9:30 p.m. CT
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