FINAL: New Orleans 132 Bulls 128- Double OT. (Bulls 18-29, 7-17 on the road)
LEADING SCORERS: Bulls: Grant and Lopez each with 22. NOLA: Cousins: 44.
LEADING REBOUNDERS: Bulls: Markkanen: 17. NOLA: Cousins: 24.
LEADING ASSISTS: Bulls: Grant: 13. NOLA: Cousins: 10.
CCI STAT OF THE NIGHT: 44-24-10. DeMarcus Cousins was absolutely phenomenal. First player to put up those numbers since Wilt Chamberlain in 1968. Yea, he was that good. Like, not good..GREAT!
CCI 2nd STAT OF THE NIGHT: 34-9-5. On any other night these numbers would be headliners. Anthony Davis was tremendous but he got overshadowed by Boogie.
CCI 3rd STAT OF THE NIGHT: Markkanen career-high 17 rebounds. Grant career-high 13 assists. Markkanen's 17 rebounds are the most by a Chicago Bulls rookie since Aaron Gray had 22 in 2008. @MarkkanenLauri @AaronGray_34
CCI 24 SECONDS COMMENTARY: This was a crazy, crazy game. How do you explain this one? NOLA started the game going through the motions..caught up....trailed by 18 then went off on a 23-6 run to force the game into OT. Justin Holiday missed the last of a three shot foul that would have won the game...Anthony Davis fouls out—The Bulls turn it over three straight possessions in double OT —oh yea, Boogie Cousins. The best game I’ve ever seen him play since he entered the league. I’m staring at my stat sheet as we’re flying to Philadelphia and I’m still shaking my head. He played nearly 52 minutes! He posted up—he took 11- 3s—-he went 13 of 14 from the foul line...He had 7 of his 24 rebounds on the offensive window. The numbers are robust and staggering. The Bulls got away from moving the ball midway fourth quarter. Their shot selection wasn’t the best as it allowed a NOLA ball club to gain momentum and eventually get it done. Jrue Holiday did an exceptional job defending Jerian Grant at crunch time.
INSIDE THE LOCKER ROOM WITH COACH HOIBERG:
On the fourth quarter performance:
“We gave up two offensive rebounds in the first half and 13 in the second. The inability to get a rebound late obviously really cost us. Their pressure getting into us, lost all of our pace that we were doing a good job on for the most part of the entire game. It really slowed us down and we had trouble getting into an offense. That’s what got their run started. I thought we did a lot of good things out there a lot of positives coming in here against a team playing really good basketball. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make the plays we needed to.”
NBA NEWS AND NOTES:
The Bulls next opponent, Philadelphia, blew a double digit fourth quarter lead and lost in Memphis. Will the Bulls finally see Joel Embiid on the court?
Atlanta is playing .500 ball over the past fourteen games after beating Utah.
Charlotte handed the Kings their 33rd loss of the season 112-07. Kemba Walker is a Hornet as of today—scored 26.
Milwaukee fired Jason Kidd then beat the Suns 109-105 as Middleton and Brogdon combined for 67 points. Am I surprised the Bucks made a coaching change? No.
Minnesota lit up LAC 126-118. Wiggins torched the Clippers for 40 points. The Wolves won their 31st game matching their win total of last season.
Denver won a huge game beating the Blazers in Portland. Jamal Murray-big time fan of his—scored a career-high 38 for the Nuggets. The Pelicans are going to regret taking Buddy Hield over him..then again they swapped Hield to Sacramento in the Cousins deal.
Houston beat the Heat who played without Goran Dragic (knee) 99-90.
The Mavs bounced the Wizards as Washington scored 75 points.
Joel Embiid has been named the Eastern Conference player of the week, with averages of 29.7 points, 12 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.7 blocks as the Sixers went 3-0 on the week.
According to published reports, Cavs players turned on Kevin Love for playing only the first three minutes of Saturday’s game against OKC because of illness then bailing on Sunday’s practice.
Doc Rivers and Coach Thibs want the NBA All Star Draft televised with LeBron and Steph presiding as captains who select the teams. Thoughts? PS: I was always “that kid” who was selected last in pick up games and it was deflating and ruined my life..LOL. I think NBA players can handle it, don’t you?
Thanks for reading CCI. E-mail me at cswirsky@bulls.com or Twitter @ctsbulls.
Always a pleasure!