Ayo Dosunmu scored a team-high 21 points and Josh Giddey and Nikola Vucevic registered double-doubles to lift the host Chicago Bulls to a 128-123 win against the Atlanta Hawks on Monday.
A season-high eight players scored in double figures for the Bulls, who secured a 3-0 start.
Giddey contributed 18 points and 13 rebounds while Vucevic had 17 points, 17 rebounds and nine assists.
Kristaps Porzingis led all scorers with 27 points for the Hawks. Jalen Johnson followed with 25 points and Trae Young had 21 points and 17 assists.
Chicago outscored Atlanta 41-34 in a frenetic third quarter to take a 98-92 lead into the fourth.
Onyeka Okongwu connected on a driving floater with 8:07 remaining, giving the Hawks a one-point lead and setting up a tight finish in a game that featured seven ties and 15 lead changes.
Chicago took a six-point lead on Giddey’s trey with 1:05 left and weathered Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s contested three-pointer on the next Hawks possession.
Tre Jones sealed the result with a pair of free throws with 7.7 seconds to go.
Matas Buzelis (16 points), Kevin Huerter (15), Jones (14), Patrick Williams (12) and Isaac Okoro (10) also finished in double figures for Chicago.
Okongwu had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Hawks and Alexander-Walker chipped in 17 points.
Back in the lineup after missing the past two games with flu-like symptoms, Porzingis shot 11-for-17. He registered Atlanta’s first points of the night on a cutting dunk and scored eight of the team’s first 10.
Atlanta led by as many as 13 points in the first quarter. The Hawks took an 11-point advantage on a Porzingis jumper with 3:28 left before the break, but the Bulls closed the second quarter on a 14-4 run to pull within a point at halftime.
Buzelis started the surge with a three-point play, but the Bulls kept going after finding an elusive spark from behind the arc late in the quarter, as Williams and Jones contributed 3-pointers.
The Bulls finished 16-for-43 from deep after a 3-for-18 start.
Vucevic has posted a double-double in eight of his past 11 games against the Hawks.
–Field Level Media
