FINAL: Clippers 113 Bulls 103 (Bulls 18-34, 7-20 on the road)
LEADING SCORERS: Bulls: LaVine: 21. Clippers: Gallinari and Harris each with 24.
LEADING REBOUNDERS: Bulls: Portis: 13. Clippers: Jordan: 16.
LEADING ASSISTS: Bulls: Grant and Lavine: 4. Clippers: Williams: 6.
CCI 24 SECONDS COMMENTARY: The Bulls came up empty in the fourth quarter, shooting only 27%. The three-point ball wouldn’t go down the pipe, and the Bulls connected on only 2 of 11. Tobias Harris shined in his Clippers’ debut, scoring 24 points. A few bright spots for the Bulls, however: Zach Lavine with back-to-back 20 point games (21-9-4), Bobby Portis managed his sixth double-double, and the Bulls were a perfect 17-17 at the line. The Bulls have now dropped six-straight games, but can head back to Chicago late Monday night with a win if they can take care of the Kings in Sacramento.
CCI GAME BALL GOES TO: Paul Zipser. The Bulls are giving the second-year pro plenty of playing time, and he’s making the most of it. Zipser, in 26 minutes, poured in a season-high 16 points and grabbed five rebounds.
MARKKANEN UPDATE: Lauri and his wife celebrated the birth of their first child, a son, born several days ago. Congratulations to all! There’s a possibility that Lauri will rejoin the team for tomorrow’s game. He has totaled three double-doubles in his last four games. He last played a week ago against the Bucks, where he scored 17 points and gathered 10 rebounds.
UP NEXT: Monday at Sacramento.
NBA NEWS AND NOTES
THE NBA’s primetime game of the night featured the Rockets and Cavs, and it was all Houston. The Rockets ripped LeBron and company 120-88, draining 19-three point field goals. James was very blunt afterward: "They should take us off every nationally televised game for the rest of the season," said James, who spoke softly with a baseball cap pulled over his eyes. "We haven't played good at all and we get our butts kicked every time we play on national television, so I'm at a loss for words." (ESPN). To back James's words, the Cavs have lost their last eight nationally televised games by an average of 18 points! Wowza!
Niko Mirotic, in his Pelicans' debut, played thirty-five minutes off the bench with a stat line of 18-12-2 and 4 steals. However, Minnesota won its twelfth-straight at home 118-107. KAT recorded his league-leading 47th double-double of 22 points and 16 rebounds.
Washington won its fourth-straight, dishing out 35 assists in a 115-98 win past Orlando.
Pacers 100 76ers 92. Joel Embiid played on both ends of a back-to-back for the first time in his career, and tallied 24 points and ten rebounds.
Detroit won its second-straight with Blake Griffin in the lineup, sending Miami to its third-straight loss, 111-107. Andre Drummond got in the books with his sixth 20-20 game this season (23 points 20 rebounds). Griffin launched a big three at crunch time, and finished with a 16-9-7 game.
Dallas 106 Kings 99. Sacramento hosts the Bulls Monday with a 16-36 record.
A tough turnaround for the Warriors after playing Friday in Sac-town. Golden State hit the road in Denver and the road hit them back, 115-108. 20,103 people on hand, the largest crowd for a Nuggets game in Pepsi Center history.
Don’t look now but the Jazz are red hot, winners of five-straight. Utah 120 Spurs 111. Ricky Rubio with a season high 34 points and nine assists.
Thanks for reading CCI. Email me at cswirsky@bulls.com or Twitter: @ctsbulls.
Always a pleasure!