The Chicago Bulls kept the good times rolling as they knocked off the Atlanta Hawks 130-118 on Monday night. Now, the Bulls look to notch their second victory over the Hawks in a week as they face off again, this time at the United Center.
The Bulls trio of DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic had one of their first in-tandem monster performances. The three players combined for 89 points and 25 assists in a high-scoring affair.
Atlanta put up a bigger fight than many would expect with such a poor shooting from their star player in Trae Young (8-of-23), as they were lifted with a massive and unexpected scoring effort from third-year forward Cam Reddish.
On Wednesday night, Chicago looks to recreate their winning formula against Atlanta for their 22nd win of the season.
Closeout Hard On Cam Reddish
Cam Reddish is a great defender and solid scorer for such a young talent but against the Bulls on Monday, he turned in a career best offensive performance. Reddish scored 33 points on Chicago, including a sizzling 8-of-13 shooting effort from the 3-point line.
If the Bulls want to prevent Atlanta from sticking around all night, slowing down any offensive production from Reddish will be a major key. In Monday's matchup, Reddish was only 3-of-3 from the free throw line. This means if the Bulls were a bit more diligent in their closeouts, Reddish would've had a much worse night.
Without being a high-volume free throw player, Reddish relies on his jump shot falling often. The Bulls need to make sure Cam is uncomfortable trying to get shots off this time around.
More Minutes For Ayo
This one is pretty self explanatory. Chicago native and 2nd round rookie Ayo Dosunmu came into the last matchup against the Hawks and legitimately changed the flow of the game.
The long-limbed rook bothered Trae Young tremendously, resulting in a porous 8-of-23 shooting effort from Atlanta's star point guard.
Dosunmu only played 25 minutes, but in that brief time he harassed Young into poor shots, while also scoring an efficient 8 points on 4-of-6 shooting.
More Ayo is simply a good thing for this current Bulls group whenever they are matched up with the Trae Young-led Hawks.
Keep Utilizing Pick-and-Pops
The pick-and-roll is the staple play of today's NBA in which a player screens for another and then rolls to the basket to create an advantage for the offense.
The pick-and-pop is the most basic variation on this play, where the screener instead pops out to an open area of the floor for a jump shot. Nikola Vucevic was deadly on this play type against the Hawks.
Vooch finished the night 24 points, including a 4-of-8 night from the 3-point line. The Montenegrin big man mixes it up a bit too much inside to likely get up more than eight attempts from deep, but nonetheless, the more the merrier.
Atlanta was completely ineffective in communicating and rotating over to closeout on 3-point attempts from Vucevic.
It would behoove the Chicago offense to continue to aggressively attack Clint Capela, who was a -13 in the first game, with pick-and-pops and thusly challenging him to guard in space.