Three takeaways from the Chicago Bulls’ loss to the Houston Rockets

The Chicago Bulls looked decent from the start – but Houston looked better. And that didn’t stop until the final horn sounded. Here are my three takeaways from the loss.

1. The first quarter Lauri Markkanen from tonight is the Lauri Markkanen I want to see for the remainder of the season.

The Bulls finally did what all the good teams do – they got the ball to their best player early and often.

The biggest problem I have with how the Bulls have used Lauri Markkanen this season is that sometimes he seems to fall into what I like to call “the Kevin Love trap.” He’ll disappear on the court for stretches of time unless he somehow finds his way into an open three.

But tonight, the Bulls got Lauri involved right away – in a variety of ways. They used him in the post primarily, which was amazing to see. His post-fadeaways were Nowitzki-esque and it was a thing of beauty.

Despite the Rockets not needing to stop Lauri because they seemingly got three points on every possession anyway – they really had no way to stop his offensive game in the first quarter.

Here are the highlights:

2. Three points are worth more than two points.

Duh – right?

The Houston Rockets shot 57 three-point shots against the Bulls. Even though they only connected on 31 percent of those, the sheer volume was too much for the Bulls to match.

This new wave of NBA basketball that the Rockets are spear-heading is something special and tonight it was on full display. Just using the eye test, it seemed like they didn’t want to shoot anything that wasn’t a three – and it worked.

If this is the way of the NBA, the Bulls are in some trouble, but until the Rockets start showing signs of post-season success with this, I’m not too worried about it.

3. Sean Kilpatrick and Noah Vonleh showed signs of good things to come. 

In his first game with the Bulls, Sean Kilpatrick got 18 minutes off the bench and looked pretty good. He finished the game with 12 points on 5-9 shooting. Obviously, these aren’t record-breaking numbers and most people will brush right past them, but it’s nice to see he fit into the system right off the bat. I expect to see more good things from him off the bench in the near future.

Noah Vonleh continued his nice run with the Bulls tonight by posting a double-double. He finished the game with 10 points and 12 boards on 5-9 shooting from the field. Vonleh has looked like a guy the Bulls can rely on for the future to be a bench grinder and do the dirty work that many aren’t willing to do – which is something every team needs. He even had a nasty put-back slam that momentarily silenced the crowd.

Next: Checking in on the five players to watch from the Sweet 16

If Vonleh and Kilpatrick can add to the bench production that Portis and Valentine are already giving them, the Bulls bench will be looking good for the future.