FINAL FROM D.C.: Bulls 133 Washington 130. (Bulls: 2-3, 2-0 on the road) (Wizards:0-5, 0-4 at home).
LEADING SCORERS: Bulls: Porter Jr.: 28pts. Wizards: Beal and Bryant: 28pts.
LEADING REBOUNDERS: Bulls: Porter: 12. Wizards: Westbrook: 10
LEADING ASSISTS: Bulls: White: 10 (CH) Wizards: Westbrook: 11
CCI STATE OF THE NIGHT: The undermanned Bulls came through with 41 bench points.
HEAD COACH BILLY DONOVAN ON DANIEL GAFFORD: "I really appreciate him staying ready and being professional as a young player... I thought he was a presence defensively at the rim and offensively on the finishes...I thought he played really really well."
CCI RECAP: A season high 34 assists led by Coby White's career high 10 dimes propelled the Bulls to a sweep of the mini two game road series in D.C. The Bulls entered the game a decimated team learning prior to tipoff that Ryan Arcidiacono, Lauri Markkanen, Chandler Hutchison and Tomas Satoransky had entered the NBA Health and Safety Protocols. Head Coach Billy Donovan showed plenty of faith and trust going to his bench early and often and they delivered big time. Thad Young making his season debut scored 15 points. Daniel Gafford added 15 points and five rebounds. With Markkanen out, Coach Donovan went with Otto Porter Jr. in the starting lineup and Porter stepped up with a 28-12 game against his former team. White recorded his first NBA double-double of 16 points and 10 assists. The Bulls presence in the paint was felt once again as they bulldozed the Wizards scoring 58 points.
NEXT: Tonight at Milwaukee. The Bucks check in at 2-3 after splitting a pair of games at Miami. On Tuesday, Milwaukee set an NBA record draining 29-three point field goals.
RADIO: 670 THE SCORE: Chuck Swirsky and Bill Wennington 6: 45 CT Pre.
TV: NBCSC: Adam Amin and Stacey King: 7PM.
CCI NBA NEWS AND NOTES
Philadelphia 116, Orlando 92. The 76ers handed the Magic their first loss of the season as Joel Embiid scored 21 points and grabbed nine boards in three quarters of hoops. Philly led by as many as 37 in the first half.
Houston 122, Sacramento 119. John Wall had 22 points and nine assists in his first regular season game since 2018.
Toronto 100, New York 83. The Raps in the win column for the first time as Rockford's Fred Van Vleet scored 25 points and dished out seven assists. The Knicks went 3 for 36–that's right, 3-36 from three point range - if you're doing the math at home that's a frigid 8%.
Indiana 119, Cleveland 99. The Pacers improved to 4-1 as Domantas Sabonis scored 25 points and 11 rebounds. T.J. Warren will have surgery to repair a stress fracture and will be sidelined indefinitely.
New Orleans 113, Oklahoma City 80. Brandon Ingram was ejected in the third quarter but not before he put up 20-7 numbers. The Pelicans out rebounded OKC 58-40.
Phoenix 106, Utah 95. The Suns have won four of their first five games. The Suns made 17- three pointers.
Thanks for reading CCI. Happy New Year! Reach out: cswirsky@bulls.com or Twitter @ctsbulls
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