On the first night of a four-game road trip, the visiting Chicago Bulls will look to take advantage of a friendly part of the schedule, which continues on Monday against the plummeting New Orleans Pelicans.
After Chicago escaped with a 121-120 victory over the one-win Washington Wizards on Saturday, the Bulls will face the 2-15 Pelicans, before taking on the Charlotte Hornets (4-12) and the Indiana Pacers (2-14).
Following a five-game losing streak, Chicago has won three of its last four, each in dramatic fashion. After Kevin Huerter’s free throws with 1.7 seconds left gave the Bulls a three-point win over the Denver Nuggets on Monday, veteran Nikola Vucevic has starred in the team’s last two victories.
Vucevic, 35, drilled a buzzer-beating 3-pointer on Wednesday to give Chicago a 122-121 triumph over the Portland Trail Blazers, before pouring in 28 points on Saturday to help the Bulls stave off Washington. Although Vucevic is glad to be on the right side of a chaotic week, the Chicago big man was candid in his thoughts on the group’s recent play.
“Obviously we’re happy we won, but we can’t keep doing this. It’s not sustainable,” Vucevic said of the team’s late rallies. “We have to be better. Just our approach, the way we play, what we’re putting out there. We’re giving up tons of offensive rebounds, drives, no resistance for 36 minutes and then we finally start playing a little bit. It’s not sustainable. We don’t have enough talent to do that.”
Chicago’s talent-level did improve this week, as Coby White made his season debut after missing the season’s first 11 games with a right calf strain. In three appearances, White is averaging 24 points and seven assists per game.
Josh Giddey adds 20.4 ppg, while ranking third in the league with 9.7 assists per contest and leads the Bulls with 10.1 rebounds per game. Giddey logged his fourth triple-double of the season on Saturday, posting 18 points, 12 boards and 11 dimes.
Just a month into the regular season, New Orleans is already playing for next season. On the heels of a nine-game losing streak, the Pelicans have plummeted to the bottom of the Western Conference.
Last time out, New Orleans fell 115-98 at home to the Atlanta Hawks – the team that the Pelicans traded their 2026 first-round draft pick to during June’s draft.
Zion Williamson (hamstring) was held out on the second game of a back-to-back and Jordan Poole (quadriceps) remains out, so interim head coach James Borrego had rookies Derik Queen, Micah Peavy and Jeremiah Fears start in the loss, as the Pelicans’ young core will be forced to take their lumps as the year continues.
“These are moments for our young guys to grow,” said Borrego, who took over for the fired Willie Green on Nov. 15. “We started three rookies and we’re without three of our top paid players on this roster, but that’s no excuse. This is a moment to grow and we had some moments (on Saturday) where I thought we could have been better.”
Fears and Queen have been bright spots as first-year contributors, averaging 15.4 and 12.6 points per game, respectively.
–Field Level Media
