CHICAGO (AP) – Coby White scored a season-high 31 points, DeMar DeRozan added 24 points and 10 assists, and the Chicago Bulls beat the New Orleans Pelicans 124-118 on Saturday night.
DeRozan missed the previous game with a left ankle sprain but took charge of a Bulls team missing Zach LaVine, helping them turn around the game in the third quarter en route to their second straight victory. White helped Chicago put it away with an alley-oop to Patrick Williams for a six-point lead with 20 seconds left.
“As long as I threw it up high enough that (Jonas) Valanciunas couldn´t get it, I knew that Pat is so athletic and bouncy and springy that he could go get it,” White said. “That´s becoming his thing: ending the game with monster dunks.”
Torrey Craig and Ayo Dosunmu each scored 15 points off the bench for the Bulls, combining to hit four of the team´s 17 3-pointers. Williams added 14 points along with a pair of blocks.
Troubled by a long history of injuries, Zion Williamson played on back-to-back nights for the first time all season, after resting for three previous opportunities this year. Williamson scored eight of his team-high 27 points in the final three minutes of the second quarter. The scoring flurry helped the Pelicans take a 61-53 lead to halftime, but the Bulls outscored the Pelicans 36-21 in the third quarter to erase the deficit.
“Sometimes you´ve just got to do it until you get it right,” DeRozan said of the Bulls’ improved offensive rhythm the last two games. “We´ve had moments, periods of quarters, halves where we did it. Now we´ve been putting together a full game with it. That´s how we´ve got to play if we want to keep putting up wins.”
Brandon Ingram scored 23 points for the Pelicans, who rested both CJ McCollum and Trey Murphy III while playing their second game in as many nights. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Pelicans ahead of their In-season Tournament quarterfinal in Sacramento on Monday.
“Our margin for error is smaller when you have guys not available tonight, so we just have to learn from that,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said. “We have to be better with our execution on both ends of the floor.”
The Pelicans held opponents to the lowest 3-point shooting percentage in the NBA last season and entered Saturday night once again as best in the league this year. Yet a Bulls team missing its most proven perimeter shooter in LaVine hit 17 of 40 3-point attempts, with White making a season-high eight 3-pointers.
“I was getting in trouble a lot for not taking them,” White said. “Everybody from the staff, from my teammates, to the front office, whoever, was telling me don´t pass up any shots.”
Bulls guard Alex Caruso left the game shortly before halftime and did not return due to a left toe injury. Caruso has missed three games earlier this season due to his left toe. LaVine missed his second straight game with right foot discomfort, and the team announced on Friday that the two-time All-Star is expected to miss another week of action.
“It´s the same thing with his toe that he had last time; he re-aggravated it,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said of Caruso´s injury. “I really do not know how bad it is, if he´ll miss any time. It certainly was hurting him enough that he couldn´t play in the second half.”
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