Bulls lose a competitive game against the Wizards despite impressive team effort

The Bulls lost 101-90 to the Washington Wizards on Saturday night in Chicago, but there were plenty of bright spots around the team’s young talented core that shouldn’t be ignored. 

Without Zach Lavine and Kris Dunn on Saturday night, the Bulls put forth a solid team effort throughout the 101-90 loss to the Wizards. Despite widespread scoring contributions from the team, much of the Bulls production came in the second half after not being able to get their star rookie Lauri Markkanen going early.

The main takeaways

The tanking Bulls put forth another game where they showed strong effort throughout, and it was extremely impressive to see how well the Chicago Bulls squad was able to distribute the ball around equally. Eight players on the Bulls scored in double figures, but their production came a little too late after poor shooting efforts in the first half. The Bulls needed to find a way to adjust to the game flow, so they finally began to force the ball to their big men in the second half.

Markkanen and Denzel Valentine both posted double-doubles, but were inconsistent in their shooting efforts. Markkanen was 5-19 from the field, while Valentine went 4-14 with 10 points. Valentine got the start in place of Lavine, who rested after Friday night’s 35-point performance.

Even though it felt at times like the Bulls were getting destroyed, they ended up playing a close game until the Wizards pulled away late.

How the Chicago Bulls lost

The Wizards got off to a quick start Saturday night after raining down three-pointers at a torrid pace early in the game.

Tonight’s story was Washington point guard Tomas Satoransky’s 25-point performance with five three-pointers, starting in place of All-Star John Wall, who is on the shelf with a knee injury.

The Chicago Bulls found a way to keep the game close, even after playing terrible perimeter defense that allowed the Wizards to hit 13 threes.

One of the question marks of the game was Markkanen’s nonexistent presence in the first half of the game after only scoring two points. Veteran Robin Lopez also struggled to significantly contribute in the first half.

In a relatively low-scoring matchup for both squads, the Bulls committed 16 turnovers and looked shaky in their transition defense.

The Bulls also had clock management issues, struggling to beat the shot clock before expiration on multiple different occasions.

What should the Bulls have done earlier in the game? 

The team needed to get one of their most reliable players, Lauri Markkanen, going earlier in the game. They failed to push the ball to him and, according to Vincent Goodwill, Markkanen did not take a shot during the first five minutes of the game.

Nevertheless, Markkanen attempted 19 shots and had plenty of opportunities later in the night after scoring his first bucket with less than 5 minutes to play in the 2nd quarter.

Things got heated as the passion shined through

Bobby Portis was efficient and provided a nice stat line for the Bulls off the bench. Portis was effective immediately and was easily one of the only offensive bright spots for the Bulls early in the game after leading the team with nine points in the first half.

He shot 50 percent from the field and recorded 13 points before running into some trouble.

Portis was ejected with less than 3 minutes to play in the game after fouling Tomas Satoransky hard while the Wizards point guard was in the air for what appeared to be a dunk attempt. Portis was hit with a Flagrant-2 and Satoransky had to leave the game after an impressive night.

Double-technical fouls were also given to Lopez and Wizards forward Mike Scott late in the third quarter after a small scuffle occurred between the two. This was just another example of the passionate RoLo being RoLo.

The bright spots for the Chicago Bulls future

This team continues to play with a maximum amount of heart and effort, which is great to see during the rebuilding period. Saturday night, Justin Holiday continued his solid scoring streak after finishing with 15 points – his fourth game in a row scoring in double figures. The entire starting lineup, along with Portis and David Nwaba, also finished the night with double figure scoring totals.

Jerian Grant also had a nice night. He was one of the main focal points of the team’s offense, filling up the stat sheet and dishing out 8 assists.

The Bulls did a better job of getting the ball into the hands of their top scorers like Markkanen in the second half, and the rest of the season should be fun to watch if the team continues to play with the same amount of vigor.