DETROIT _ The Chicago Bulls continue their inexplicable mastery over the Pistons.
They limped in on a six-game losing streak Saturday night and beat the Pistons for the fourth straight time this season _ 108-99, at Little Caesars Arena.
Zach LaVine led the Bulls with 25 points.
Derrick Rose had 20 points and seven assists, Christian Wood had 17 points and 14 rebounds. Rookie Sekou Doumbouya, whose three-point play brought the Pistons within two with 6:47 left in the game, finished with 12.
Lauri Markkanen, who finished with 14 points, scored five points in a 9-2 run that put the Bulls back up 98-90 with four minutes left.
The Pistons went more than four minutes with just one field goal before Svi Mykhailiuk hit a 3-pointer with 1:10 left. But it was too little too late.
The Pistons didn't show much life until a frustrated Andre Drummond was ejected early in the third quarter.
Just 1:18 into the second half, Bulls center Daniel Gafford scored a put-back over Drummond to put the Bulls up 63-52. He put an exclamation point on it by screaming in Drummond's face.
Drummond threw ball off Gafford's head. A double-technical foul was called, but only Drummond was ejected.
The Pistons responded with an 11-4 run. Doumbouya, Rose and Tony Snell each hit 3-pointers to trigger the run and get the Pistons re-engaged in the contest. Wood, who replaced Drummond, had six points and a block.
But the Pistons never quite got over the hump.
LaVine scored eight straight points to close the third quarter, keeping the Bulls up 10, 81-71, entering the final quarter.
The Pistons got within four a couple of times in the fourth quarter, but never closer.
They had to play uphill from the start after falling into a 15-point hole after one quarter. The Bulls were beating Pistons defenders off the dribble and scoring at will in the paint and at the basket. They closed the quarter with a 23-6 run, scoring on 10 straight possessions, building a 35-20 lead.
By the end of the half, the Bulls had outscored the Pistons 40-26 in the paint and shot 55% from the floor.
Luke Kornet scored 12 points in under seven minutes in that first quarter. His season-high up to then was nine points. He finished with 15. LaVine also had 12 in the first half.
The last time Markieff Morris faced the Bulls, he scored a season-high 23 points, hitting seven 3-pointers. That was on Dec. 21. Morris has only played one game since.
But he was back on the Pistons bench Saturday. He'd missed seven games with a foot injury.
"He's available," coach Dwane Casey said before the game. "The key thing with him is just his game conditioning. You can work out all you want, he was working hard behind the scenes, but it's different when it's live and you are running up and down.
"We're going to have to monitor him."
Doumbouya, a small forward by trade, continues to start at the power forward spot with Blake Griffin likely out for the season after knee surgery.
"Right now it's out of necessity," Casey said. "We need a big body and he's shown he can handle it. The thing he can't do is foul. He needs to get good position and don't get cheap fouls. He will learn that. But we are excited about where he is."
