NBA: Bulls shore up defensive effort, knock off Pistons

Nikola Vucevic had 29 points and 12 rebounds and the visiting Chicago Bulls defeated the Detroit Pistons 122-112 on Monday night.

Zach LaVine and Coby White supplied 25 points apiece for the Bulls. Josh Giddey had a near triple-double with 11 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds.

Chicago had allowed 144 and 143 points while losing its previous two contests. On Monday, the Bulls limited the Pistons to 42.9 percent shooting from the floor and 34.1 percent from deep. Chicago shot 48.4 percent from the field and made half of its 46 3-point attempts.

Cade Cunningham led the Pistons with 26 points and 10 assists. Malik Beasley had 21 points off the bench. Jalen Duren had 15 points and grabbed 22 rebounds while Tobias Harris contributed 16 points and Jaden Ivey chipped in 12.

Vucevic had 13 points as the Bulls opened a 36-25 first-quarter lead. Vucevic also made the last basket of the half, giving Chicago a 65-57 halftime advantage.

Vucevic had 17 points at the break and White also reached double figures with 13. Beasley and Harris topped the Pistons with 10 points apiece at the break.

Detroit scored the first six points of the second half but the Bulls answered with a 7-0 run. After Chicago nudged the lead to 10, Cunningham made consecutive 3-pointers.

The Bulls rebuilt the lead to 11 with two minutes left in the quarter. Detroit cut it to eight, 93-85, by the end of the third.

It took less than four minutes into the fourth for the Pistons to pull even as they reeled off a 10-2 run. Chicago came right back with a 13-2 outburst. Giddey had a layup and a dunk, followed by a trio of LaVine 3-pointers.

After the Pistons crept within eight points on two occasions, LaVine answered with a 3-pointer. He hit another with 1:45 to go to make it 120-107.

This was the first of four meetings between the Central Division clubs. The remaining three games of the series will be played in February. — Field Level Media/Reuters