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Black Friday special, Windy City Bulls hosting Cleveland Charge. Windy City will look to bounce back after a loss to Sioux Falls Skyforce. Will this be a big McClung breakout game? Will Lachlan Olbrich continue his hot streak? Or will Noa take the reigns as the top guy? Those are just some of the questions coming into the game as the calendar is about to turn to December.
Cleveland comes out of the gate, charged up! No pun intended. Attacking the basket at-will. That’s been the glaring weakness for this Bulls team, the lack of a true inside presence, and Cleveland is attempting to exploit it from the get-go.
Bulls keeping up with some slashing to the bucket and spreading the ball around. Not only, does the Charge seem to have their way with dominating the paint, they are hitting the three ball with ease in this first quarter to get ahead of the Bulls. At the end of one Charge leading 41-33.
Interestingly the Charge has Killian Hayes on the roster. Hayes a former top 7 lottery pick of the Detroit Pistons. He came over from Germany with a lot of promise and a ton of skill. Granted, he’s had his fair share of injuries that have slowed down and somewhat derailed his career.
It goes to show the potential of a young prospect often times doesn’t work out and isn’t worth the risk of being taken in the lottery. There are far more Killian Hayes that get drafted high and come into the league than the Giannis Antetokounmpo’s. A cautionary tale. That being said, credit Hayes for going to the G-League and trying to showcase his skills and get back to the big time.
The Charge have figured out the Bulls weakness immediately and area still attacking the pain at-will. That being a big contributing factor why they have a 74-65 lead heading into halftime. If the Bulls plan to make a run, they will have to put some bodies in the paint.
Two nights ago it was the third quarter that did the Bulls in, this time it’s the reverse. A huge third quarter lead by Kevin Knox propelled the Bulls to a double digit lead. Knox was all over the place, driving, slashing to the basket, hitting three pointers. That’s what this Bulls team envisioned from him when they brought him onto the team. He’s delivering on this night.
In the fourth the Bulls continued the run, Knox gave way to Emmanuel Miller, Olbrich and Essengue to continue pilling on the points. Even with a small run, lead by Killian Hayes, Cleveland couldn’t cut much into the lead that had ballooned for the Bulls.
This time the Bulls held onto the lead and closed out the game. Bulls win 142-135. A shootout, the Bulls did have the game in control since the third, so the score wasn’t necessarily reflective. A tale of two halves. A struggle in the first half and second half dominated by Windy City. Nice win.
This team can score, but they will need to find ways to come up with stops, or else it’s always going to be a 120 point shootout you’re trying to win.
