Well-fed Wade leads Bulls past Sixers
A little home cooking served Dwyane Wade well.
With the Bulls in Philadelphia on Thanksgiving Day, Wade and wife Gabrielle Union decided to hop in a helicopter for a quick trip to New York and dinner at Carmelo Anthony's place.
Wade, of course, documented the entire trip for his Snapchat followers. And at the dinner table, who did Wade sit next to but Derrick Rose, the former Bulls star and current Anthony teammate with the New York Knicks.
“We talked a little bit,” Wade said at Friday's shootaround, according to espn.com. “Obviously it was table talk, so I can't tell you all what we talked about, but obviously we talked a little bit about Chicago and he asked me how it is to be home.”
After Wade's short flight, the Bulls capped off the long circus road trip with a relatively easy 105-89 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center. The Bulls (10-6) finished the trip with a 4-2 record.
Wade and Jimmy Butler led the way with 26 points each. Butler hit 10 of 15 shots from the field and sat out the entire fourth quarter. Wade knocked down 11 of 18 attempts.
“I was happy to get a home-cooked meal,” Wade said. “It was cool. Last year (the Miami Heat was) in New York, so I was able to have Thanksgiving with the Anthonys, me and my wife, and this year because we were so close we were able to go up there again.”
Rose also chimed in Friday with some compliments for Anthony's Thanksgiving spread.
“They had everything you could think of. Melo's doing it right,” Rose said, according to espn.com. “They made me feel like I was home. It was perfect.”
Rajon Rondo added 10 assists and 8 rebounds Friday, Taj Gibson had 10 points and the Bulls got enough positive contributions from the bench to finish it off.
The Bulls jumped to an early 20-8 lead, let it get close, then secured the victory by winning the third quarter 33-17. Ersan Ilyasova led Philadelphia (4-11) with 14 points.
The Sixers decided to rest center Joel Embiid. The 2014 first-round pick missed all of the past two seasons with foot injuries, but has done well now that's he's finally gotten on the court. The 7-foot Embiid leads Philadelphia with 17.8 points and 7.6 rebounds.
Even though they continue to struggle as a team, the Sixers were 4-1 in their last five home games and the one loss was in double overtime against Memphis. So this was a game the Bulls couldn't overlook and they came out with the right frame of mind. Jumping to an early lead usually bodes well for the Bulls, though not always.
The Bulls will now get four days off before returning to the United Center to face the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday.
Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg had an update on injured guard Michael Carter-Williams. Carter-Williams has been out since Nov. 2 with a bone bruise in his left knee, but returned to Chicago on Wednesday to get his left wrist checked.
“He had a little stall in his progress,” Hoiberg said. “He'd been getting progressively better then had stalled, still had some swelling his wrist. So he was sent home to go see a hand specialist. It sounds like the initial diagnosis of 4-6 weeks is the same. He was put in a cast just really to immobilize that wrist so he doesn't do anything to aggravate it.”
Hoiberg said Carter-Williams will be re-evaluated in two weeks.
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