The Bulls held serve in Chicago, winning the first half of their home-and-home set against the Cleveland Cavaliers behind a triple-double from Josh Giddey.
Cleveland will attempt to return the favor Friday, along with stopping its slide down the Eastern Conference standings.
Giddey moved into 23rd place in NBA history with his 24th career triple-double Wednesday, powering the Bulls to a 127-111 victory. The Australian-born guard had 23 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists.
The decisive triumph was Chicago’s second win in a 10-game span and made it 6-15 since opening the season with five straight victories. The 16-point margin was the Bulls’ largest win since April 13 at the Philadelphia 76ers.
“This is kind of what we’ve been trying to get back to for a while,” said Giddey, who is averaging 20.3 points, 9.4 rebounds and 8.9 assists. “We started the season off the right way, then went through obviously a rough stretch. This was a step in the right direction.”
At age 23, Giddey is making a strong push for his initial All-Star selection. His six triple-doubles are one shy of his career-best total set last season for the Bulls.
In his first three pro campaigns with the Oklahoma City Thunder, the 6-foot-7, 216-pounder averaged 13.9 points, 7.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists, but has exceeded those numbers across the board in both seasons with Chicago.
Giddey’s big performance allowed the Bulls to withstand a 32-point, five-assist game by Cavaliers shooting guard Donovan Mitchell. Coby White added 25 points for Chicago and Nikola Vucevic had 20 points and nine rebounds.
“(Coach Billy Donovan) has been mixing it up with double-big lineups and ‘Vuce’ was awesome,” Giddey said. “It was a good night against a really good team that’s in kind of a similar situation as us, they haven’t been playing their best ball of late.”
One year after finishing with the top record in the East, Cleveland has plummeted from second place to ninth in the last month by losing eight of its 13 games.
Perhaps most troubling, the Cavaliers are 1-4 in their past five contests with losses to sub-.500 opponents Portland, injury-decimated Golden State and Charlotte.
“I always say during these times, you discover a lot about yourself and a lot about your team,” Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson said. “And you can use it down the line. We’ll try to double up on the positives.”
Mitchell has been the primary one, averaging a career-best 30.7 points while leading the league with 105 3-pointers. He gutted out a team-high 33 minutes at Chicago despite “being under the weather,” according to his coach.
Small forward Jaylon Tyson is next on the list of pluses, scoring 21 points against the Bulls while displacing De’Andre Hunter from the starting lineup. Hunter had 12 points in the loss and is shooting a dismal 34.3% from the field in seven games this month.
“The reasons for that change were twofold,” Atkinson explained. “It was to help our bench as we’ve been struggling scoring the ball off the bench. And to help the team. When you’re 4-6 in the last 10, you’ve got to change things.”
Cleveland is 1-1 against the Bulls, beating them 128-122 on Nov. 8 at home with Mitchell and Hunter each scoring 29.
“The good news is we get to see these guys again, so it’s like a playoff series,” Atkinson said. “We’ve got some time to clean things up.”
