DEMAR DeRozan produced 29 points, seven rebounds and seven assists and Zach LaVine scored 23 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished eight assists to lead the host Chicago Bulls past the Toronto Raptors 111-105 on Wednesday.
DeRozan set the tone against his former team, shooting 8 of 14 in the first half as the Bulls built a 67-50 lead by intermission.
Chicago leveraged a 68-46 scoring advantage in the paint to lead most of the way, but Toronto battled back to pull ahead 103-102 with 3:11 remaining.
Gary Trent, Jr. scored 32 points for a second consecutive game to lead Toronto. He shot 6 of 10 from the 3-point arc.
On the last attempt of his 11-of-22 shooting night, Trent pulled the Raptors to within 107-105 with 2:03 to play, but he was ejected when he received his second technical foul of the night.
LaVine made the ensuing technical-foul free throw, and after Nikola Vučević grabbed his game-high 15th rebound, Vučević hit a 3-pointer to put the game away. He finished with 17 points and eight assists.
Javonte Green added 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting and grabbed six rebounds for the Bulls, and Coby White finished with nine points off the bench. Reserve Troy Brown, Jr. chipped in another eight, hitting 2 of 3 3-point attempts.
Wednesday marked Chicago’s 24th game this season in which both DeRozan and LaVine scored at least 20 points.
OG Anunoby scored 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the floor for Toronto, making 3 of 7 from beyond the arc. Scottie Barnes added 16 points, seven assists and five rebounds.
The Raptors’ Pascal Siakam snared seven rebounds and matched Barnes’ team-high seven assists, but he shot just 3 of 12 from the floor en route to 12 points. Chris Boucher added nine points to lead Toronto’s reserves. — Reuters
