Jazz 150, Bulls 147 (2OT) – November 16, 2025

Offense has not been the primary problem for the Utah Jazz this season, and they reminded the Chicago Bulls of that right after the ball was tipped.

Lauri Markkanen got things rolling against his former team with an easy layup off the Jusuf Nurkic assist. Following a Svi Mykhailiuk triple on the next possession, the Bulls were introduced to the Ace Bailey experience. The high-upside rookie grabbed an offensive rebound and slammed the ball before nailing a three a little over a minute later. Suddenly, the Jazz were up 10-3 in fewer than 3 minutes of action.

The Bulls starters were struggling to find an early rhythm, even with Josh Giddey back on the court for the first time since their Cleveland loss last Saturday. Instead, they once again leaned on their second unit to drag them out of the mud, and that’s exactly what they did. Coby White made his highly anticipated season debut by checking in off the bench at the 5:37 mark of the first quarter. Coming off a screen at the top of the key, White grabbed the inbound feed from Ayo Dosunmu and immediately drained a three. It was vintage Coby White. Can you use the word vintage when talking about someone who’s 25?

White proceeded to sprint down the floor and attempt to take a charge. He didn’t get the call, but the hustle alone underscored how excited he was to be back on the court. It also helped set a new tone for this somewhat sluggish Bulls team. The second unit was able to eventually even the playing field, and they got their biggest contribution from an unlikely source. With Tre Jones sidelined, Billy Donovan handed Julian Phillips some extra minutes. The forward came in at quickly scored 8 points in his first 4 minutes on a perfect 3-3 shooting. His triple from the corner is what knotted things up at 28 apiece. The bench ended up scoring 21 of the team’s 33 points in the first quarter.

Slowly but surely, the Bulls also started to put more pressure on the rim throughout the first half. Not only did this lead to plenty of trips to the free-throw line, but it also led to some nice drive-and-kick opportunities. One of the best came later in the second quarter when White sliced through the defense before leaving his feet and sending a beautiful mid-air feed back to a wide-open Patrick Williams behind the arc. He drained it to give the Bulls their biggest lead yet at 54-46.

The second quarter for the Bulls ended with 14 points in the final 2:19 to take an impressive 70-61 lead. All 14 of those points were scored by Josh Giddey and Coby White. All things considered, this felt like the exact kind of stretch fans were hoping to see from this tandem tonight. The Giddey-White backcourt finished the 2024-25 campaign as one of the most impressive in the NBA, and this showed why. They were flying down the court and putting considerable pressure on the interior defense. Utah didn’t know which player would attack them from which angle.

Chicago would come out of halftime and increase their lead to as much as 15 points thanks to a Nikola Vucevic three at the 7:50 mark. With the starting lineup finally looking more settled in, it briefly felt like the Bulls were on their way to running away with things for the first time in quite some time. But Keyonte George and Lauri Markkanen had other plans. The two combined for 23 points in the quarter and combined for a 9-9 shooting effort from the charity stripe. Utah has been one of the top free-throw shooting teams in the NBA all season long, and this is what ultimately allowed them to keep the game within arm’s reach.

Indeed, Isaiah Collier’s trip to the charity stripe early in the fourth quarter is ultimately what brought Utah within a single bucket. After a Josh Giddey missed three, Brice Sensabaugh would nail his own trey to officially erase the Bulls’ lead and give Utah a 102-101 lead. From here, it was a back-and-forth affair until the buzzer sounded … three more times.

Tied at 127 after a – you guessed it – made free throw for the Jazz, the Bulls had a chance to win it. They opted for a Josh Giddey ISO in the final seconds. While he did end up getting off a decent look that rattled off the rim, the play felt bizarre and rather uncharacteristic for this offense. And this felt particularly true when we consider the Bulls blew past White’s minutes restriction to have him on the floor in crunch time.

Perhaps this is why they changed course at the end of our first installment of free basketball, which was completely and utterly drunk. Down 136-132 with 27.4 left to go, Matas Buzelis dunked it to force the Jazz timeout. Utah then tried to inbound the ball to Collier, only for the Bulls to steal the ball. Now with a prime opportunity to tie the game or take the lead … White lost the ball out of bounds. He shook it off instantly and tied up George on the next possession to force the jumpball. Then, he won the jumpball!

Billy Donovan called a timeout and this time put the ball in the hands of his go-to scorer. White flew right past Markkanen downhill to tie the game at the rim with seconds left. To be honest, he should have headed to the line after, as the refs missed a pretty clear shove by Markkanen as White left his feet.

The Bulls looked pretty darn gassed in the second OT. Ayo Dosunmu started things off by turning the ball over before fouling George behind the three-point line shortly after. He made all his freebies. Another costly turnover came with 1:52 left on the clock when Giddey’s pass was taken away by Markkanen. Fortunately for the Bulls, the Jazz failed to capitalize, and White was able to force his way to the free throw line to make it a 144-142 game.

Fast forward to 8.4 seconds left, and White was at the free-throw line again to tie things up at 147 apiece. One more stop, and the Bulls were headed to triple OT. Knowing Chicago had another game less than 24 hours away in Denver, however, George did the nice thing and made a nasty three to seal the 150-147 win.

The Bulls started the year 6-1 … and they are now 6-6. They have not won a game since November 4, when they shockingly took down the 76ers. Losing to teams like Milwaukee, Cleveland, and San Antonio is palatable. The Bulls were in those games and simply couldn’t close out against superstars. However, they now have back-to-back losses to two teams they were supposed to beat. The Pistons had an injury report larger than a spoiled brat’s Christmas wishlist, while the rebuilding Jazz were losers of four of their last five. Oh, and did I mention Chicago came into this game on three days rest?

Chicago will now have to face a 10-2 Denver Nuggets team on extremely tired legs tomorrow night. Let’s also not forget this is the first of five games in seven days. So, yeah, as far as early-season losses go, this is about as brutal as it gets.

Player Grades

Coby White – A
Stats: 27 PTS, 8 AST, 4 REB

Coby White balled out in his first game back. While he may not have had the most efficient shooting night (5-14), the rust wasn’t very noticeable on he 25-year-old. You also have to respect how hard he played coming off a pretty serious calf injury. White shot a stellar 14-14 from the free-throw line and was one of the only reasons the Bulls were even able to hang around as long as they did.

Matas Buzelis – B+
Stats: 18 PTS, 6 REB, 1 STL, 2 BLK

Matas Buzelis brought some good energy from the jump, and he was one of only three players on the team to finish with a positive plus-minus. He shot 7-13 from the field, which included a timely bucket both in the fourth quarter and OT. The only problem is that it felt like he disappeared at times when this team could have used him offensively. Not to mention, he fouled out early in the second OT.

Ayo Dosunmu – B
Stats: 18 PTS, 5 AST

I’m a little confused why we only saw 25 minutes of Ayo Dosunmu tonight. Maybe I need to go back and watch this one over, but he was 6-10 from the field and drained a very clutch three in the fourth. To be sure, it was far from a perfect game, but I’m not sure there is any world where Dosunmu playing this little in a 2OT game makes sense.

Julian Phillips – B
Stats: 10 PTS, 1 REB

To be honest, there is a case to make that we should have had more Julian Phillips in this one! The forward came in and shot 4-5 from the field in his 13 minutes of action. His spark off the bench was a big reason why the Bulls gained control of the game in the first place.

Josh Giddey – C+
Stats: 26 PTS, 13 AST, 12 REB

The final stat line looks great, but Josh Giddey had an up-and-down night. He shot a rough 9-21 from the field and also went 0-3 from downtown from the fourth quarter on. On top of that, he turned the ball over six times. The Bulls as a whole allowed 20 points off turnovers.

Nikola Vucevic – C
Stats: 21 PTS, 13 REB, 2 AST

I’m not sure how I feel about this Nikola Vucevic performance. On the one hand, he did hit some important buckets when they needed him most. On the other hand, this was another one of those games where his subpar rim protection was felt pretty significantly.

Chicago Bulls Box Score

Check out the full box score here.