The Bulls failed to capitalize on their excellent start to the road games stretch, losing 107 – 112 to the Portland Trail Blazers and ending an excellent 7-game winning streak.
The game at Moda Center could be summarized as the “tail of two halves”. After beating both the Clippers and the Lakers in L.A., Chicago traveled north to Portland in high spirits, holding an amazing 11-4 record this early into the season. And when the game began, we all expected another rout by the Bulls. The first half was dominated entirely by Chicago, the Bulls pulling 9 points ahead in the Q1 and adding another 6 points surplus in the second quarter, to go to the locker rooms with a 15-point lead. At this point, most people were looking forward to cashing their bets on the Bulls. LaVine and DeRozan were on fire and nothing seemed to be able to stop the Bulls from improving their record further.
Alas, the second half of the game was the proverbial flipping of the script. The Trail Blazers staged an immense comeback, erasing 11 points off the Bulls lead in the 3rd quarter alone. This didn’t seem to fire up the Bulls enough and the final quarter was once again dominated by the Trail Blazers, who netter 31 points vs only 22 for Chicago. In the end, spirit and determination was what lead to the final score of 107 – 112 and the Trail Blazers victory.
Zach LaVine was once again strong on the court, scoring 30 points for the night and netting 7 out of 12 3-pointers. DeRozan left Portland with 22 points and Alex Caruso was close to a triple double, ending the night with a double-double 12 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists. But the performance was mostly confined to the first half of the game, and turnovers galore in the second didn’t help either. For the Trail Blazers, Damian Lillard led the scoreboard with 22 points, 4 rebounds and 10 assists, while Powell and Nurkic both scored 18.
The Bulls will now start heading back east, stopping at Denver on Friday to face off the Nuggets for their final road game. Denver will certainly be even tougher opponent, currently #5 int he Western with with a 9-5 record.
