Carlos Boozer, Luol Deng impress as Chicago Bulls thrash Atlanta Hawks 98 – 77 – NBA Recap
The Chicago Bulls continued their fine form with another win over the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday. The Bulls were without star point guard Derrick Rose, but still dominated proceedings at the Philips Arena, running out 98 – 77 winners.
Carlos Boozer was terrific in the game scoring 20 points and grabbing 9 boards. The top scorer for Chicago was forward Luol Deng, who finished with 22 points, including 5-of-8 from downtown.
"We played great," Deng said. "Guys got easy looks because of the ball movement."
"The thing we did well is, even when they made their run, we responded right away," Deng said. "It was just a great team effort."
"It's been pretty remarkable, with all the guys that have gone down, to have the record that we do," Chicago's Kyle Korver said. "Obviously, we'd rather have Derrick playing. But guys keep stepping up."
Joakim Noah and John Lucas had 10 points each whereas Taj Gibson scored 19.
The Haws were marshalled by Josh Smith, who ended the game with 19 points and 7 rebounds. Joe Johnson had 12 points while Jeff Teague netted 13 with 8 assists.
It was Atlanta who actually got out of the blocks quicker, going up 13 – 5 in the first quarter. The Bulls however are a resilient lot and they started eating away at the lead afterwards, ending the period trailing behind by just 2 points, 23 – 21.
In the second segment, Chicago started to take control. A 7 – 0 burst to start put them ahead, 28 – 23. Later another 12 – 0 burst took their lead into double digits, 54 – 36. At halftime, Chicago were cruising 54 – 42.
The Hawks were expected to make a comeback after the interval, but the home crowd was left disappointed as it never materialized. In fact, the Bulls slowed down the pace of the game and kept Atlanta at more than an arm’s length throughout the third quarter. It ended 76 – 60 to the visitors.
The final 12 minutes followed the exact same pattern. The Hawks couldn’t catch a break and the gap only increased before they were put out of their misery by the final bell, at 98 – 77.
Tags: