Posted On NBA.com/Bulls
The Bulls Sunday had more grit and ended up grinding out a 108-104 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.
Doug McDermott scored a career high 31 points, but it was Jimmy Butler with two big jump shots in the last minute after the Grizzlies had rallied back from a seven-point fourth quarter deficit to tie the game with under a minute left.
The second straight Bulls win got them back to .500 at 21-21. The Grizzlies fell to 25-18. In addition to McDermott’s big night, the Bulls got 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists from Butler, 18 points and eight assists from Taj Gibson, 12 points, seven rebounds and three blocks from Robin Lopez and 14 points and seven rebounds from Michael Carter-Williams. Mike Conley had 28 for Memphis and Marc Gasol 24.
The Bulls were in Memphis, the site of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., for the game with the special holiday ceremonies. It was the annual league wide commemoration of the life of the great civil rights leader. Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis April 4, 1968 at the Lorraine Motel. Dr. King, the conscience of the civil rights movement in the U.S., was known in Chicago for the 1966 open housing movement when he moved into a house in North Lawndale on the West Side. After leaving, a young Jesse Jackson was put in charge of the Chicago activities. Dr. King was in Memphis at the time in support sanitary workers. The Bulls were without Dwyane Wade, who was resting on a back to back game, and Nikola Mirotic, who still was ill. Neither was with the team. Paul Zipser got his second start at small forward with Butler moving to guard. It was a good start for Zipser with an opening runner and jumper off the dribble that got the Bulls back within 11-10 with 6:58 left in the first quarter. But it was a brutal shooting quarter for both teams, the Bulls a shocking two of nine on free throws, missing all six threes and 27.3 percent shooting overall. The Grizzlies couldn’t get much going either at 34.8 percent and one of six on threes in a slow moving first quarter after which the Grizzlies led 19-14. Memphis had 19 rebounds with all the misses and the Bulls 15.
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