NBA: Bulls win by one, send Raptors to fifth straight defeat

Nikola Vucevic scored 24 points and the visiting Chicago Bulls held on to defeat the Toronto Raptors 122-121 on Monday night.

Chicago led by 16 before seeing its lead melt to one point in the fourth quarter.

Coby White added 19 points for the Bulls, who have won two straight. Josh Giddey had 11 points, nine rebounds and eight assists before leaving with an ankle injury in the third quarter.

Ayo Dosunmu scored 12 points, and the Chicago bench got significant contributions from Talen Horton-Tucker (15 points), Jalen Smith (10) and Julian Phillips (10).

RJ Barrett scored 19 of his 32 points in the first half for the Raptors, who have lost five straight. Gradey Dick scored 27, Ochai Agbaji added 15, Chris Boucher chipped in 11 points and 10 rebounds and Jamal Shead finished with 10 points.

Toronto's Jakob Poeltl had six points and five rebounds before leaving early in the fourth quarter with a groin injury.

Chicago led 33-25 after the first quarter and 53-50 at halftime.

The Bulls opened the third quarter with a 10-3 surge. Toronto responded with six straight points. Chicago worked the lead back to 11 on Lonzo Ball's 3-pointer with 6:18 to play in the third.

After a Toronto miss, Vucevic's hook shot bumped the lead to 13 with 5:48 left. Giddey left with 4:49 left in the third with an injured right ankle. He was charged with a foul after sliding into Dick, who was attempting a 3-pointer.

The Bulls led 95-84 after three quarters.

Chicago opened the fourth quarter with five straight points. Toronto came back to cut the margin to six with 6:07 to play on Dick's 3-pointer. Toronto trimmed the gap to one on Barrett's hook shot with 2:28 left. White made a layup with 53 seconds remaining. After a Toronto miss, Ball hit a 3-pointer at 1:08 for a 119-113 lead.

Dick made a 3-pointer, but Vucevic's hook shot pushed the lead to five with 14.4 seconds left. Shead hit a 3-pointer at the final buzzer to pull Toronto to within one.

Bulls leading scorer Zach LaVine (back spasms) did not play. — Field Level Media/Reuters