The Chicago Bulls beat the Los Angeles Clippers 100-90 at Staples Center on Sunday, ending the opponents' seven-game winning streak.

Having hosted the Minnesota Timberwolves one day ago, the Clippers were not focused enough against the Bulls in the first quarter, trailing 30-17. Though they soon found their form in Q2, the 13-point deficit was still too large for the team to overcome.

The Bulls and Clippers used similar squads on Sunday, with both teams performing their best with a small lineup. Nikola Vucevic was still unable to play, but it enabled the Bulls to further speed up, especially when they had one big man plus four guards – Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso, Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan – on the floor.

Both LaVine and DeRozan are productive scorers from outside, and the Clippers decided to assign their best defender, Paul George, to take on the more explosive LaVine.

It's hard to rate George's defensive performance, because on one hand, it took LaVine 27 field goal (FG) attempts to score 29 points and he went 2-8 in the mid-range while committing four turnovers. However, LaVine was 6-13 from downtown. Over half of those shots were made off the dribble after his teammates set screens. George, as a 2.03-meter-tall forward, is not the best defensive option to break through screens.

Another consequence of having George defend LaVine was that DeRozan was left to roam free. He went 8-12 in FGs to score 26 points in the first three quarters before the Clippers had to double-team him outside the 3-point line, not because they feared his 3-point shooting, but for his lethal isolation play in the high and middle post.

Despite the aggressive trapping efforts of the defenders, DeRozan still went 4-4 in Q4 to get nine points.

"Every time I came home, it was always an honor," DeRozan, who was born in Compton, southern Los Angeles County, said. "This is my first time coming home to play since my dad passed. And he was at every game. He didn't miss any games. [Sunday] was one of those games that, you know, I wish he was here."

Fairly speaking, the Bulls were not better than the Clippers in small-ball situations but the Clippers lacked effective weapons to hurt their opponents in Sunday's game. Usually it either takes a destructive big man in the low block or a heavy-duty forward to destroy every defender he faces one-on-one.

Neither Ivica Zubac nor Isaiah Hartenstein fits the first category. Kawhi Leonard, who is the perfect example of the second category, is still trying to recover from injury. George can play that role if he shoots to kill behind the arc, but he failed to do that on Sunday, going only 2-10 in triples. His cold hands affected the rest of the Clippers, who shot a combined 9-24 in 3-pointers.

Hawks get revenge against Bucks in big win

The Atlanta Hawks defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 120-100 at State Farm Arena to get revenge for being eliminated by the reigning champions in the Easter Conference Finals last season.

Trae Young, who was held back by injury back then, was fully healthy and made eight 3-pointers to put down 42 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists. He scored 15 points in Q1 to help the Hawks establish an eight-point lead and claimed 11 in Q4 to make sure that the game entered garbage time early.

Young's passing also helped John Collins and Clint Capela complete eight dunks and score 28 points in the paint.

"He came out very aggressive. He felt the rhythm and stayed with it." Hawks head coach Nate McMillan said of Young. "I thought he established a tempo on both ends of the floor. I loved the pace that we played with tonight."

Sunday's win was Young's 17th game scoring 40+ points, tying him with Kevin Durant for the third-most in his first four NBA seasons, following only Michael Jordan (62) and Shaquille O'Neal (21) since the NBA-ABA merger in the 1976-77 season.

By contrast, the Bucks lost their seventh game in the past 10. Giannis Antetokounmpo returned after resting for three days and finished with 26 points, five rebounds and six assists. However, he missed 10 jumpers. Jrue Holiday got 18 points and eight assists but his plus-minus (-17) was even worse than that of Antetokounmpo (-9).

The Bucks are currently No. 11 in the East with a 6-8 record.

Other games on Sunday (away teams come first):

San Antonio Spurs 106-114 Los Angeles Lakers

Golden State Warriors 102-106 Charlotte Hornets

Phoenix Suns 115-89 Houston Rockets

Brooklyn Nets 120-96 Oklahoma City Thunder

Portland Trail Blazers 95-124 Denver Nuggets