Mavericks Ride Surprise Rookies to 149-128 Bulls Demolition in Season Finale — April 12, 2026 ...Middle East

Our Chicago Bulls wrapped up their 2025-26 season with a blowout loss for the ages at American Airlines Arena.

While sitting six players (including their two most important, Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis), Chicago managed to let the similarly ailing-and-tanking Dallas Mavericks definitively end their year, 149-128.

Prior to the Bulls game, the Milwaukee Bucks lost their own season finale against the Philadelphia 76ers, 126-106. In a surprise to absolutely no one, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported quickly after the Bucks bout that Hall of Fame head coach Doc Rivers is out.

That loss dropped Milwaukee to a 32-50 record — meaning a win against Dallas would send Chicago into a tie for the league’s ninth-worst tally, diluting their lottery odds.

So the Bulls headed into the game in control of their own destiny, with their eyes on solo possession of the ninth-worst record in the NBA.

Thankfully, the club didn’t disappoint. Chicago finishes the year at 31-51, and now has the ninth-best Tankathon odds of notching the No. 1 pick (4.5 percent) or at least a top-four selection (20.3 percent) in the loaded 2026 NBA Draft.

Dallas, meanwhile, now slides into a tie for the NBA’s sixth-worst record, 25-56, with the Memphis Grizzlies after the victory.

When Did Everything Fall Apart Against the Mavericks?

Whether it wanted to or not, Dallas had this game in the bag pretty much from the jump. Wings Max Christie and Khris Middleton helped the Mavericks get off to a demonstrative 18-4 advantage in just the contest’s first four minutes.

A swarm of aggressive Bulls guards helped Chicago narrow the gap a bit late, but the team still finished the opening quarter down big, 45-34.

Two-way players Lachlan Olbrich, Mac McClung and Yuki Kamura all logged double-digit minutes. Olbrich drew his second straight start. McClung got some first-quarter run himself and Kawamura made a series of treys in the second half en route to an NBA career scoring high of 14 points.

Yuki with back-to-back threes ?@KawamuraYuki | @CHSN__ pic.twitter.com/O8KtjstnwW

Dallas superstar-in-training power forward Cooper Flagg played briefly, exiting the game for good early into the second quarter after he rolled his ankle. The Rookie of the Year frontrunner wrapped up his night with 10 quick points in 10 minutes.

Thankfully, the Mavericks managed to continue building out their lead in the second quarter.

First-year point guard Ryan Nembhard, younger brother to Indiana Pacers star Andrew, and former five-time All-Star and four-time champ Klay Thompson helped the Mavericks pull away for a dominant 80-56 edge at the break.

During that first half alone, Thompson logged 12 points, all achieved on 3-point takes, off the Dallas bench. Nembhard’s prolific passing was a big reason why. He logged 11 assists through just two quarters (more on that in a second).

KLAY IS COOKIN' ♨️?: KFAA t.co/0dq6ZVNU47 pic.twitter.com/ZsGBbBrGUM

One of the Bulls’ billion or so guards, new trade acquisition Rob Dillingham, submitted his best-ever first half with a whopping 17 points on 8-of-13 field goal shooting. He would go on to finish with a team-high 25 points on 11-of-18 shooting from the field.

With Flagg done for the second half, a pair of undrafted Mavericks rookies served as the club’s surprise standouts — thanks to some astronomic stats.

Nembhard surpassed Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd for a franchise rookie-best 23 assists in the game. Kidd’s previous tally, 17 dishes, was achieved 31 years ago. Nembhard became just the 11th rookie to have recorded 20 dimes ever. He finished two shy of the all-time record.

RYAN NEMBHARD RECORDS HIS 18th ASSIST!He sets a new Mavericks rookie record, passing his coach, Jason Kidd (17 on Mar. 13, 1995) ? pic.twitter.com/L5jdo652Ds

Explosive 23-year-old Dallas center Moussa Cisse chipped in a 17-point, 20-rebound double-double off the bench (he nabbed 10 offensive boards alone). Some caveats are needed. In part, the athletic big missed a lot of close looks around the rack, but managed to grab his own boards (or “me-bounds,” in the parlance of Angel Reese). He also was playing against stringbeans Patrick Williams, Lachlan Olbrich and Leonard Miller in the Bulls’ frontcourt. That helped.

In one of those weird, fluky end-of-year statistical anomalies, Olbrich logged a… triple-double, thanks to his teammates lobbying game officials late (his last dish was an outlet to McClung for a lay-in on Chicago’s final possession), per K.C. Johnson of Chicago Sports Network. Olbrich had never even nabbed an NBA double-double before this night.

The Aussie big scored a career-most 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the floor and 2-of-2 shooting from the charity stripe, 15 boards and 10 assists in 31 minutes. The Chicago second-round pick’s moxie and hustle helped him clean the glass with aplomb. He began hunting for dimes in the game’s closing minutes, much to the excitement of a suddenly animated Bulls bench.

Was this game essentially a scrimmage for some of these semi-checked-out players, thereby inflating their stats? Sure, especially in the second half. But the numbers are still fun to cover anyway.

Among Bulls players who actually suited up, this was likely the last game in a Chicago uniform for unrestricted free agent combo guard Collin Sexton, who finished with 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field and three assists.

Full Box Score

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