Bulls 134, Pelicans 118: Bulls cruise in first game without White, Giddey

The Chicago Bulls end 2025 with a win.

Finally beating the New Orleans Pelicans, 134-118, after losing to them twice this season already, the Bulls improve to 16-17 as they enter 2026.

Without Josh Giddey and Coby White, the Bulls were short on backcourt depth, starting Tre Jones alongside Isaac Okoro and Matas Buzelis. The Bulls are also without Zach Collins, and despite his absence, Billy Donovan still went with the double-big configuration to prevent against the Pelicans’ offensive rebounding.

Donovan has been adamant about playing with multiple ball handlers, which meant Buzelis had to step up, at least with the starters. He opened up scoring for the Bulls with a fantastic play in transition, showing off the skill set that makes him a unique prospect. Buzelis scored 19 points on 8-of-17 shooting.

The first half was just about the peak of Bulls basketball. Jones had nine points and eight assists and a first half buzzer-beater. Okoro had a career-high in first half points, with 16. As a group, the starters shot 65.7 percent. The team had only three turnovers. If they could have made some threes (29 percent) or free throws (55 percent) they would have been up a lot more.

The second half was more of the same. The offense was clicking on all cylinders — the Bulls shot 51 percent from the field, made 15 threes, attempted 34 free throws to the Pelicans’ 27 and only turned it over seven times. The Bulls outscored New Orleans 25-15 in transition, and 60-56 in the paint. They had eight players reach double figures, including Okoro, who scored a season-high 24 points, and Jalen Smith had a 14-point, 14-rebound double-double. Jones chipped in 20 points and 12 assists with only one turnover.

The Bulls are a system team, so how they play matters far more than who plays for them. Even without Giddey and White, the effort was there against New Orleans, which is why they were able to win.

See you in 2026!

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Up next: On Friday, the Bulls will host the 19-15 Orlando Magic, in their third matchup this season. So far, the two teams have split the season series 1-1 as the Bulls took care of them during their opening 5-0 start, but lost amid their seven-game skid.

The Magic are struggling in their last two weeks, during which time they are 4-4 with a -5.3 point differential. They’re 26th in offense and 16th in defense over that time. Aside from a 15-point loss to the Hornets and 23-point loss to the Warriors during that time, most of their games have been close, but they’ve struggled to close out tight games and three-point shooting remains a problem despite their offseason acquisition of Desmond Bane.

Tune into the CHGO Bulls postgame live: 

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With the Bulls announcing that White (calf tightness) will be re-evaluated in one week, Giddey (hamstring strain) will be evaluated in two weeks and Zach Collins (toe) will be re-evaluated in ten days, the Bulls are about to have their resolve tested in a big way. 

Collins (+11.0), White (+7.6) and Giddey (+6.9) represent three of the Bulls top-six players when it comes to on-off splits — the difference between the team’s net rating with a player on the court compared to when they sit. And the team tends to perform at a high level when at least two of those three are on the court together, including +15.2 with all three.

In addition to those three, Julian Phillips (+11.0), Jalen Smith (+9.8), Dalen Terry (+7.7)  Kevin Huerter (+2.4) and Tre Jones (+1.0) are the only positive contributors. Everyone else on the roster currently owns a negative on-off differential. 

For the last few years, the Bulls have been hanging onto a Play-In spot by a thread, with multiple things, including various teams behind them aggressively tanking, needing to go right to make it that far. With the injuries piling up during a critical part in the season — 18 games to go before the February 5 Trade Deadline — Arturas Karnisovas and company may not get the chance they want to fully evaluate their group when healthy. 

Will the rest of the squad step up and keep the team afloat? Or will they succumb to injuries, potentially even losing more players due to larger workloads and minutes? Will these 18 games provide the incentive the front office needs to start thinking more seriously about the future of the team rather than the present? Or will they view it as holding on for dear life until Giddey and White can come back and lead them to another Play-In appearance?

— Will Gottlieb   

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No Giddey? No White? Make way for the Bulls’ new offensive juggernaut, Okoro! Arturas Karnisovas’ prized offseason trade acquisition had a previous season-high of 19 points, and had 16 by halftime on 6-8 shooting from the field. He finished with a Bulls career-high of 24. Now that’s what you call “next man up!”

Hey Bulls, make your darned free throws.

Shoutout Jones. It’s always easy to see why he earned Donovan’s trust so quickly. Thrust back into the starting lineup, he played his usual — but amplified — role of smart set-up man for his teammates. 12 assists and only one turnover. Oh, and he chipped in 20 points without missing a shot. Now that’s a solid backup point guard! Kudos to Ayo Dosunmu as well, who had six assists to zero turnovers to make up for a poor shooting night.

Would’ve liked to see more from Buzelis in the first game without White and Dosunmu. With those two out for awhile, Bulls fans who believe in Buzelis’ potential will want to see more from him. He had a bad shooting night from deep, so could’ve finished with an even better statline. He had a couple great aggressive takes to the hoop. But for the love of god, us Buzelis Believers want more. Foul trouble continues to be a reoccurring problem. Not uncommon for young players, but not great for Buzelis staying on the floor when larger opportunities are presented to him. At least he finished strong after picking up his fourth.

Hey look, we finally beat the Pelicans! Watch out, NBA.

— Matt Peck   

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Merry New Year! 

Well, the Bulls said if we can’t stop them, we’ll outscore them. 

Okoro really picked up the scoring in this one. Probably the best offensive game I’ve seen him have since this season. 

Jones is just awesome. Whatever the team needs, he does. His scoring inside is fun to watch with him being the size he is. There’s no fear in his game. 

I want all of the Buzelis ups and downs while Giddey and White are out. Let him make all the mistakes he can. He has to learn on the job. 

Thought I would see more from Smith. He was solid but I thought he would do a tad bit more with his role in the starting lineup.

Patrick Lee Williams is the worst. Sincerely the WORST.

— Big Dave