The Charlotte Bobcats had lost 18 games in a row.
Until they met the Chicago Bulls on New Year’s Eve.
The Bulls played like they were thinking about where they were going to be at midnight — or like they started the party the night before — and the Bobcats played like a team that didn’t want to lose 19 in a row.
Charlotte opened the fourth quarter of a tied game with a 10-0 run and held on to beat Chicago 91-81. That is eight wins on the season for Charlotte. It snaps the Bobcats losing streak and gives Chicago a new low point for the season.
This was all about the Bobcats backcourt outplaying a Bulls backcourt (the one that still awaits Derrick Rose). Kemba Walker had a team-high 18 points, Gerald Henderson added 16, and both Ramon Sessions and Ben Gordon each had 15 points. The Bobcats backcourt had 63 points, the Bulls just 28.
Usually the Bulls try to make that up in the paint, but Joakim Noah might as well have stayed home. He moved at the speed of a three-toed sloth and had two points, four rebounds and two assists for the game.
But it wasn’t just Noah, the Bulls bad offense was a team effort — Chicago shot 35.1 percent for the game and was 4-of-16 from three. In the end, the Bulls had an offensive rating of 82.7 points per 100 possessions, which is just epically poor. They were good on defense but the rules of the game still dictate that you have to score to win. The Bulls didn’t bother.
Charlotte got their win without Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who is out with an eye injury.
It’s just one game of 82, it doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know — that the Bulls struggle without Derrick Rose in the lineup. And the Bobcats still have some NBA players on the roster that can get it done if they need to.