Maybe the Chicago Bulls should just play the Cleveland Cavaliers 82 times a year?
Stunningly, the Bulls managed to pull off their second straight double-digit defeat of the Cavaliers on Friday night, a 136-125 road victory, behind a fairly balanced, fast-breaking attack. Forward Matas Buzelis and center Nikola Vucevic led the way with 24 points each.
With the win (its third in the last four games), Chicago improved to a borderline-respectable 12-15 record, and will next face off against the Atlanta Hawks for two road games. Was this last week a turning point for the Bulls? Or just a temporary reprieve in yet another lost season?
Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn ImagesBulls Bullets
Buzelis has been starting at the four spot all season, with Isaac Okoro now installed as Chicago’s starting small forward. But on Friday, as head coach Billy Donovan leaned on his two-big lineups a bit more than usual, Buzelis found himself shifted back to the three. The 6-foot-8 second-year player conceded that he enjoyed the return to a small forward role, where he had spent much of his All-Rookie debut season last year, per Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic. “Yeah, I do feel more comfortable out there. It’s a little tougher for me to play in the corner, but I’m not really bothered by it at all. But wherever (Donovan) puts me, I know I’m gonna make something happen.” Through 27 games this season (all starts), Buzelis has been averaging 13.8 points on .477/.314/.808 shooting splits, 5.3 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.4 blocks, and 0.9 steals. He has the athleticism and speed to start at either forward spot. Would Donovan ever consider, say, promoting Jalen Smith to a starting power forward role and shifting Okoro to the bench? Okoro’s defense against opposing forwards and perimeter players has been useful for Chicago, and Smith may not quite have that versatility. Okoro can also cover for Josh Giddey and Coby White’s lackluster defense against wings. For now, it makes sense that things stay as they are."I was just being aggressive, playing with a free mind."Matas Buzelis with @KCJHoop after a 24-point night in the win over Cleveland pic.twitter.com/Mh9WQv5mWS
— Bulls on CHSN (@CHSN_Bulls) December 20, 2025 Vucevic scored 20-plus points and made plenty of clutch buckets for the second straight game, against a theoretically imposing Cleveland front line. Across his previous five games before this week, the former two-time All-Star had looked particularly rough on both sides of the ball, averaging just 11.6 points on .387/.304/.600 shooting splits, 6.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 0.6 steals per game. “There were times I was definitely frustrated, mainly at me,” Vucevic said of his recent struggles, per Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. “I didn’t feel like I was playing up to the level I know I can, so I tend to be pretty harsh on myself, sometimes a little bit too much.” Vucevic’s 24-point, 15-rebound double-double on Friday, rounded out by a clutch fourth quarter performance, was in part the result of Chicago’s extended NBA Cup layoff, he claimed afterward. “Those [four days off] after Cup play were huge,” Vucevic said, per Cowley. “We were able to regroup, and it also helped me refresh a little bit, recalibrate, and just play my game.” Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images Donovan noted that part of Vucevic’s apparent recent frustration with his team was an internal grievance, too, and also the result of some backcourt availability issues. “He holds himself to a really, really high standard, and when that standard is not met, I think he can get extremely frustrated,” Donovan reflected in the Cowley piece. “I do think our team was out of sorts [during the seven-game losing streak]. We just didn’t have a lot of guards, and Vooch is always going to be the recipient off of good guard play.” By the second half of the Cavaliers clash on Friday night, the game was officiated by just two referees. The third official, Tre Maddox, suffered a leg injury late into the contest’s first frame and missed the rest of the action.Bulls Cavs being officiated by two-man crew t.co/uCnEjEF16u
— Joel Lorenzi (@JoelXLorenzi) December 20, 2025 In Bulls-adjacent news, three-time Sixth Man of the Year combo guard Jamal Crawford was shortlisted for next year’s Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class. Crawford, who suited up as a critical microwave scorer for parts of 20 NBA seasons, was selected with the eighth overall pick out of Michigan in the 2000 NBA Draft and had his rights flipped to Chicago on draft night. He spent his first four seasons with the Bulls.Former Bull Jamal Crawford nominated for Hall of Fame t.co/1ptBryDWih
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) December 19, 2025 Why Crawford lands among the few NBA nominees in the 2026 class, but another Bulls legend does not, is somewhat astounding. Three-time champion power forward Horace Grant was inarguably a better, more impactful contributor to the game than Crawford ever was. I’m not saying Crawford wasn’t a nice player or that he didn’t thrive in his role. But he was often generally an underperformer during the playoffs, as a streaky bench shooter, and never made an NBA Finals. Grant was the third-best player on four Finals teams (the 1991-93 Bulls and the ’95 Orlando Magic) and a starter on a fifth (the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers). He made one All-Star appearance and earned four All-Defensive Second Team honors, while constantly doing the dirty work to support his flashier Hall of Fame teammates. In his dotage, he was also technically a key reserve for a sixth Finals-bound squad, the 2003-04 Lakers, but Grant missed the end of the season and all of the playoffs after suffering a cartilage tear in his right hip. Among players who have been retired for at least two full seasons and boast at least 50 win shares, Grant ranks third with 118.2 win shares per game. The fact that Crawford could get into Springfield before him is utterly insane. Former Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver allegedly wanted to flip soon-to-be-five-time All-Star shooting guard Devin Booker for six-time All-Star small forward Jimmy Butler during the Earl Watson era, i.e., at some point in 2015-16 or the Bulls’ “Three Alphas” season in 2016-17. Watson made this revelation during an appearance on the Milwaukee Bucks’ “Hear District” podcast, hosted by Marques and Kris Johnson. Watson threw his body in front of the deal, threatening to resign instantly if that happened. Chicago would, of course, eventually trade Butler anyway, to Tom Thibodeau’s Minnesota Timberwolves. The deal would seal the fate of the GarPax front office.“Robert Sarver, goes, ‘We have a trade for Devin. We’re gonna send Devin to Chicago for Jimmy Butler’… I said, ‘If you trade Devin Booker, I am resigning tonight.”— Earl Watson(via @BucksPlusAudio, h/t @RTNBA)pic.twitter.com/ucMMeY3nzQ
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) December 19, 2025 Per Shams Charania of ESPN, the league is pressuring gaming companies to modify various prop bets after a slew of players have landed in hot water for their involvement in gambling schemes recently. The league is also looking to review how its teams approach tanking for top draft equity, despite having already tried to address the issue by flattening lottery odds. A perhaps-unintended effect of this practice is that the absolute worst teams often lose out on the top picks.The NBA tells its 30 franchises today that the league has undertaken a renewed review of league policy changes concerning "tanking" — such as potential modifications to rules regarding Draft pick protections, revised Draft lottery rules, and other approaches. t.co/zCfNAFG3sS
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) December 19, 2025 The 2027 NCAA Final Four will be held in Detroit. 247Sports’ Stephen Brooks offered a sneak peek at the event’s logo on Friday morning.The 2027 Final Four is coming to Detroit. Here’s a first look at the logo pic.twitter.com/LOhGXGS1ur
— Stephen Brooks (@StephenM_Brooks) December 19, 2025Hence then, the article about buzelis at sf vucevic back on track surprise bulls cavs injury and other bulls bullets was published today ( ) and is available on Bleacher Nation ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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