Scotty Pippen Jr. scored a career-high 30 points, helping lead the visiting Memphis Grizzlies to a wire-to-wire, 142-131 win over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday.
Pippen added 10 assists while Jaylen Wells added a career-high 26 points for the Grizzlies, who won their second in a row. Jaren Jackson Jr. chipped in 23 points while Jay Huff added 14. Desmond Bane had 13, Brandon Clarke scored 12, and Luke Kennard and Santi Aldama each scored 10 off the bench. Aldama added 10 rebounds.
Zach LaVine led Chicago with 29 points, followed by Nikola Vucevic’s 26. Matas Buzelis scored 14 and Josh Giddey added 12 points, seven rebounds and eight assists. Coby White added 11 points and Talen Horton-Tucker had 10 for Chicago, which has dropped four of six.
After Memphis took a 64-60 lead into halftime, Pippen’s three-point play extended the Grizzlies’ advantage to 70-63 with 10:15 left in the third quarter.
Later in the quarter, White’s stepback 3-pointer cut Chicago’s deficit to six before Clarke and Pippen layups pushed Memphis’ lead to 87-77 with 6:54 remaining in the quarter. After LaVine’s layup trimmed the Grizzlies’ lead to five, Huff and Kennard each knocked down triples, pushing Memphis’ advantage to 97-84 at the 4:50 mark.
White’s 3-pointer with six seconds left trimmed Chicago’s deficit to 109-98 entering the final quarter.
Memphis pulled away with a 22-11 start to the fourth quarter, capped with consecutive triples from Wells, giving Memphis a 131-109 lead with 6:13 left.
In the first quarter, Memphis jumped out to an 11-4 lead on Wells’ driving dunk at the 9:15 mark. Giddey’s floater then stamped an 8-2 Bulls run, cutting the deficit to 13-12 with 6:58 remaining.
After outscoring the Bulls 30-22 in the first quarter, Memphis went on a 6-0 run to put the Grizzlies ahead 62-47 with 3:31 left in the second. Chicago then answered with a 13-1 run stamped with Giddey’s triple to trim Memphis’ lead to 63-60 with 1:12 left before halftime.
Bane split a pair of free throws with seven seconds left, giving the Grizzlies a four-point halftime lead. Jackson led Memphis with 14 points in the first half, while Vucevic’s 19 paced Chicago.
