Coby White scored 24 points Sunday night and canned a season-best seven of the Chicago Bulls’ 20 3-pointers as they earned a split of a weekend home-and-home series with the visiting Brooklyn Nets via a 124-102 rout.
Five other players made it into double figures for Chicago, which connected on 52.1% of its field goals and dished out a whopping 41 assists. Ayo Dosunmu came off the bench to add 19 points, while Matas Buzelis and Nikola Vucevic each tallied 17 points.
Jalen Smith chipped in 12 points, Kevin Huerter collected 11 and Tre Jones notched 10 points and 10 assists in a reserve role. Vucevic (11 rebounds) and Smith (10) each added double-doubles.
Nolan Traore came off the bench to score 16 points for Brooklyn, while fellow reserve Jalen Wilson, added 14. Rookie Danny Wolf also bagged 14 points, while Nic Claxton contributed 12 and Egor Demin managed 11 points. Tyrese Martin also hit for 11.
The pregame storyline concerned Brooklyn’s decision to sit Michael Porter Jr., the team’s leading scorer at 25.8 points per game, for rest purposes. Porter was the hero in Friday night’s 112-109 win over Chicago, converting a layup with 5.4 seconds left that put it ahead to stay.
Without Porter, the Nets didn’t have the firepower to stay with the Bulls in the rematch. Beginning with White’s 3-pointer with 9:15 left in the first quarter, Chicago led for the final 45-plus minutes.
The margin reached double figures for the first time with 3:16 left on Huerter’s layup and expanded to 39-22 at the end of the period. Brooklyn got within nine with 3:02 left before the half on Claxton’s layup but the Bulls again pulled away, taking a 70-51 lead at the break.
Any ideas of a big Nets comeback in the second half were quashed when Chicago upped the margin to 79-54 on Smith’s 3-pointer with 9:04 left in the third quarter. The advantage reached 26 at one point before the Bulls settled for a 95-71 cushion going to the fourth period.
Chicago’s biggest lead was 27.
