Three takeaways from the Chicago Bulls fourth straight loss

The Bucks came to town to meet up with the Chicago Bulls for a Sunday matinee. The Bulls didn’t show up to the game until halftime, however, resulting in another Bulls loss. The final score was 110-96. Here are my three takeaways from the game. 

Denzel Valentine has played his tail off the last two games.

Two games ago against the Lakers, Denzel had an incredible game scoring 16 points and adding 11 rebounds and 4 assists. He also shot the ball efficiently going 4-6 from three-point range. Well, Denzel carried that momentum into today’s game against the Bucks.

Valentine finished the game today with 18 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists while shooting 8-12 from the field.

Valentine has really been making his mark on the Bulls second unit in the last two games, playing a hefty 30 minutes per game. He’s also been adding something the Bulls have been lacking all season: energy and swagger.

Call me crazy, but I love Valentine as a bench piece going forward for the Bulls. I hope he hangs around for awhile.

The Bulls have no answer for a player of Giannis Antetokounmpo’s caliber.

The Bulls can compete with mediocre teams all season long if they want – but they can’t stop star players – and that will hold them back for awhile.

Now, let’s be honest. Not many people can stop Giannis – you can only hope to contain him. But being able to contain star players is an important part of being a contender.

Giannis finished the game with 27 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists. He also shot a pretty efficient 11-19 from the field. If he hadn’t struggled from the free throw line (5-10), he would have undoubtedly dropped 30 on this poor Bulls defense.

Check out some of his highlights here (also pay attention to how the Bulls can’t seem to contain him at all):

The tank is back on 

After putting together a few good stretches of basketball in the recent weeks, the Bulls have now shown signs of the tank again.

After today’s loss, the Bulls have lost four straight and head into a tough stretch in their schedule. Out of their next nine games, the Bulls will play the Trailblazers and Clippers on the road, and also will face Toronto, Washington, Philly, and Minnesota twice. That’s a really, really, really, tough seven games. They do get to play the Magic and Kings in that nine game stretch but who knows what will happen there?

Anyways, after four straight losses and the tough stretch of games coming up, I wouldn’t be expecting too many wins in the near future. Instead, I recommend looking at more of the top talent in college.

Bonus take away: Zach LaVine is really struggling. 

I thought this game deserved a bonus takeaway. Poor Zach LaVine has really been struggling in his last two games. Over the last two games, LaVine has 16 total points on 5-28 shooting.

It’s to be expected that he’ll have his ups and downs. ACL tears are no joke and returning from that type of injury and having not played basketball for so long, it’s completely understandable that he’ll have moments like this.

Just keep shooting, Zach. We don’t need you this year, but we need you to get back to normal for the years to come.