Paris (AP) – with Victor Wimpanyama sitting on the court And watching some of the players he’ll face next season, Zach LaVine scored 30 points and the Chicago Bulls didn’t hold back in a 126-108 win over the Detroit Pistons in an NBA game in Paris on Thursday.
DeMar DeRozan added 26 points for the Bulls, and Nikola Vucevic finished with 16 points, 15 rebounds and six assists.
Bojan Bogdanovic led the Pistons with 25 points. Killian Hayes, the only French player on either list, scored four points for Detroit on 2-of-13 shooting, but had eight assists.
Hamidou Diallo scored 17 points on 7-for-8 shooting for Detroit, while Sadik Bey and Jaden Ivey each scored 16 points for the Pistons.
That was the catalyst for several days of NBA celebration in France, after the two teams took part in clinics, tourism events like visits to the Eiffel Tower, some high-end dinners and even a special show for the NBA. The Pistons at the Paris Opera House.
And while the game counted — Chicago (21-24) remained 10th in the Eastern Conference and what would be the last place to play with the win, while Detroit fell to 12-36, the second-worst mark in the NBA — it also wasn’t a normal midseason game. .
The list of celebrities included such NBA greats as Magic Johnson, Richard Hamilton, Ben Wallace, and Tony Parker. the legend of Bulls and a native French son in Joachim Noah; the rising star that everyone can’t stop talking about at Wimpanyama; WNBA players like Gabe Williams; Even Grammy winners and Formula 1 drivers.
“I don’t want to completely compare this to an All-Star,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said, “But it’s the closest thing to a European All-Star Game that we have.”
It was also a celebration of the continued strength of the international footprint in today’s NBA game. When the Bulls and Michael Jordan — along with P.J. Armstrong, then a Bulls guard, now an NBA agent who was at the game Thursday — played in Paris during the preseason in 1997, he was one in 14 players In the NBA were born outside the United States
Now, that’s about 1 in 4.
“It’s special because we represent not only Detroit, but the NBA,” Pistons coach Duane Casey said. “And we’re trying to position the brand in a good place — in a place where basketball kicks in.”
Wimbanyama and his family They made their way to the stadium seats about 15 minutes before the alarm, immediately drawing a large crowd. When the camera found him and he was shown to the French fans on the big screens inside the arena in the second quarter, he clapped and smiled, as his mother sat one row behind his right shoulder — as the crowd positively cheered in delight. .
Both teams are heading home on Friday.
Tip-ins
Bulls: Derrick Jones Jr. has 12 points for Chicago, Including four distinctive dipping reel — no surprise to the former NBA dunk champ. … Ayo Dosunmu scored 13 for a bull. … Chicago shot 54%.
Pistons: Jalen Duren had an imperfect start to the trip—he misplaced his passport—then settles down and has a perfect shooting game, 4-for-4 from the field on his way to an 11-point, 12-rebound game. … Isaiah Stewart grabbed 11 rebounds.
Universal game
The NBA has teams in the United States and Canada, of course, and this match in France pushed the list of countries the league has played or trained in this season to seven.
Mexico hosted a match between San Antonio and Miami last month. The Heat also held training camp in the Bahamas, and the league went to two other countries for preseason games—Golden State and Washington played twice in Japan, while Milwaukee and Atlanta played twice in the UAE.
road trip
It was a “home” game for the Pistons, even though Paris is about 4,000 miles away from Detroit. As the home team, the Pistons had to bring a large number of personnel on the trip—including some game operations personnel and members of the primary staff working the scoring table.
James Capers, Carl Lane and Natalie Sago were sent to officiate the match. The three referees played matches on Saturday in the United States, and then traveled to Paris.
next one
Bulls: Host Atlanta on Mondays.
Pistons: Host Milwaukee on Monday.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports