With a chance to secure home-court advantage throughout the postseason in the final regular season game, Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau wanted nothing but the usual from his guys, even without the services of Derrick Rose, Luol Deng and Kyle Korver.
The Bulls (50-16) took care of business, defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers 107-75 and with the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference finalizing, will play the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the postseason starting Saturday.
Also with the win, even if San Antonio wins their season finale, Chicago, owners of the tie-breaker between the Spurs, will have home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
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In a balanced scoring effort, John Lucas led the team with 25 points. Joakim Noah finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds and six Bulls finished with 8 or more points.
Despite a solid showing by the starters in the first period, the intensity picked up in the second period as a backcourt of Lucas, Mike James (10 points), along with Jimmy Butler (12 points), Taj Gibson (10 points, 12 rebounds) and Noah helped to out-score the visitors 32-20 for a 58-45 lead going into halftime.
With the starters back on the floor to start the second half, the Bulls blew the game open, going up as much as 22 before settling with an 80-62 lead going into the fourth period.
The fourth quarter was simply a formality as the sizable margin led a sellout crowd to wonder when fan-favorite Brian Scalabrine would check into the game and whether they would receive their complimentary Big Macs.
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They got both.