ATLANTA — Four minutes into Sunday’s 152-150 win over the Atlanta Hawks, the Chicago Bulls were already out of breath.
“Man, this game’s a track meet,” assistant coach John Bryant noted as the starters huddled up on the sidelines for a welcomed timeout.
Guard Coby White just shook his head as he answered: “You have no idea.”
The Bulls and the Hawks serve as metronomes for the entire NBA. Chicago ranks second overall in pace (103.8 possessions per game). Atlanta trails only slightly behind with the fifth-fastest pace in the league (102.4). And this breathless style of play clashed in full effect on Sunday as each team tried to outrun the other.
At the half, Matas Buzelis gawked in disbelief at the score: 83-73. But when he voiced incredulity about how many points the Bulls had already scored, his teammates barely reacted.
“I was like — OK, this must be normal,” Buzelis said with a laugh.
It almost wasn’t enough.
Even with 152 points on the board in the NBA’s highest-scoring game of the season, the Bulls came a single possession away from fumbling the win. Isaac Okoro fouled out with 41.5 seconds left on the clock. Coby White missed three free throws within the final minute. Buzelis missed another with 4.2 seconds remaining, allowing the Hawks to take one final crack at a win with a two-point deficit. Trae Young got to his spot and attempted to bait Josh Giddey into a game-tying foul, launching a shot before the buzzer that fell just wide.
On another night — with worse luck — the result might have been different. And that possibility still haunts coach Billy Donovan despite the positive result.
“I’m happy we won the game, I’m happy with a lot of things that we did do, but I always try to look at the things that we’ve got to really, really control and take some ownership of,” Donovan said. “Those are the things that can come back and hamstring you. I always say — you let luck come back in with that.”
This was always going to be a game won by whichever team punched back the hardest. Neither team could stop the other from scoring in an offensive outpouring. But in their third consecutive win, the Bulls continued to provide a bit of much-needed bite — and clawed one game closer to .500.
Here are three takeaways from the win.
1. When it rains, it pours.
Chicago Bulls forward Matas Buzelis shoots during the first half against the Atlanta Hawks, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Colin Hubbard)
Midway through December, the Bulls offense lost its momentum. It wasn’t something subtle — the bottom dropped out with a swiftness, leaving Chicago reeling amid a losing skid punctuated by a constant influx of injured players.
But with the entirety of the central rotation mostly cleared off the injury report, the Bulls have begun to get their rhythm back in the last week. That was enough to fuel the Bulls through two wins over the Cleveland Cavaliers. And it was enough to power a 152-point performance in Atlanta highlighted by an 83-point first half.
This jolt of scoring started behind the arc. Matas Buzelis scored four 3-pointers on his own in the first half. Buzelis did not miss a shot from the floor until the fourth quarter, finishing with a season-high 28 points on 10-for-11 shooting with seven made 3-pointers.
Three other players — Coby White, Isaac Okoro and Kevin Huerter — scored at least two 3s apiece in the first half as the Bulls racked up 12-for-24 shooting from behind the arc. For a team averaging 13.9 makes per game from 3-point range this season, that flurry came as a welcome change.
The Bulls cooled slightly from deep in the second half — going 8-for-18 — but their overall production didn’t slow even as those shots fell with less authority. Chicago piled up points by keeping the ball moving, forcing a higher tempo in the open court and returning to the inside-out identity that buoyed the offense earlier in the season.
Nine different players finished in double-digits, including a near-triple-double from Josh Giddey, who logged 19 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds.
2. Scoring outweighed the defensive inadequacies.
Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young misses a game-tying shot as time expires against Chicago Bulls guard Josh Giddey during the second half on Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Colin Hubbard)
Chicago’s 152 points would have felt meteoric if they weren’t matched by an equally hot Atlanta offense. The teams played as if they made a tidy handshake agreement in the halls outside their respective locker rooms to not play any defense. After the Bulls dropped 45 points in the second quarter, the Hawks answered with a 42-point third quarter. The result was a slug fest that didn’t give either team a substantial advantage until the final buzzer.
The Hawks offense is still readjusting to the return of Trae Young, who missed the first 22 games of the season with a sprained MCL. The guard reignited his shooting with a 7-for-8 onslaught from deep to tally 35 total points. Young fed the onslaught with his own scoring, but he also peppered the Bulls defense with dangerous passes to set up his teammates. That began with the opening possession, when he nutmegged Nikola Vučević with a crafty pass between the center’s legs to feed Onyeka Okongwu for a layup.
While the Bulls preached parity, the Hawks were anchored by standout nights from their stars — and one unlikely secondary scorer. Okongwu and Jalen Johnson pounded the paint for a combined 59 points. And for every hot shot the Bulls hit from deep, Vít Krejčí had an answer, knocking down six of his 10 shots from behind the arc off the bench.
3. Still waiting for White.
Coby White of the Chicago Bulls draws a foul from Dyson Daniels of the Atlanta Hawks during the fourth quarter at State Farm Arena on Dec. 21, 2025, in Atlanta. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
The Bulls still need Coby White to return to his typical form — and Sunday’s game was another step in the right direction. The guard started once again alongside Josh Giddey and the rest of the standard primary rotation. He ripped off a few of his textbook dance-and-dodge drives in the opening half and still managed to tally 21 points and five assists.
White still doesn’t look comfortable. He’s clearly struggling to keep up with the physicality of the game, both in contact play and in his cardio fitness running up and down the court. His 3-point shots often fall an inch or two short, clanking off the rim. This is expected for a player who missed a significant portion of the offseason in addition to the opening weeks of the regular season — but that doesn’t make it any easier for the Bulls to operate without their would-be leading scorer at full strength.
Still, White found his shot dependably in the fourth quarter, scoring 11 points while forcing himself to the free throw line eight times. Those clutch misses from the penalty stripe stuck out in a closely contested game, but White’s ability to deliver from the floor in the final frame was crucial for a Bulls team attempting to climb up the rungs of the Eastern Conference.