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Chicago Bulls: Wendell Carter Jr. Leads Way With 22 Points In Loss

By Nello Rubio

PORTLAND, OR - JANUARY 9: Wendell Carter Jr. #34 of the Chicago Bulls dunks the ball during the game against the Portland Trail Blazers on January 9, 2019 at the Moda Center Arena in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images)
PORTLAND, OR - JANUARY 9: Wendell Carter Jr. #34 of the Chicago Bulls dunks the ball during the game against the Portland Trail Blazers on January 9, 2019 at the Moda Center Arena in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Chicago Bulls rookie Wendell Carter Jr. shows aggressive offensive play with 22 points despite loss to start West Coast road trip.

Wendell Carter Jr. lead the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night with 22 points and looked pretty stellar despite the teams 124-112 loss to the Trail Blazers in Portland. Scoring almost half of the teams 56 points in the paint.

The rookie had 14 of his 22 points in the second half on a very solid 7-of-9 from the field in just 28 minutes. Seven points split between the third and fourth quarter, you wonder why the Bulls didn’t go to him more in the first half and even despite being down only five at the half if they would’ve went to him more they could’ve had even smaller of a halftime deficit or even had the lead.

Just missing out on yet another double-double with six rebounds, you like to see the aggressiveness from Carter Jr. that he showed Wednesday night too. As he went 7-of-7 from the free throw line. Including 5-of-5 from the charity stripe at the beginning of the fourth to the 6:45 mark left.

That included this layup and one on a really beautiful pass from Ryan Arcidiacono in the early fourth to cut the Bulls deficit to 8 at the time.

Unfortunately for the Bulls that’s the closest they would get, as the Trail Blazers would run away with things much of the rest of the quarter. Running their lead up to as much as 19 with 5:16 and later 1:51 left.

The Bulls not getting as much offensive help from their other big Lauri Markkanen, who scored only 10 points on just 4-of-12 shooting also probably played a contributing factor in the loss.

Though Markkanen was aggressive on the defensive end where he had three blocks and a steal, while Carter Jr. who’s normally pretty aggressive on the defensive end and especially with the blocks wasn’t as much in Wednesday’s loss.

Next. Five-game road trip starts in Portland. dark

It makes you wonder if even though the rookie had a pretty stellar game on the offensive end, if he would’ve on the defensive end like he normally does and Markkanen on the offensive end. If the Bulls would’ve had a better shot at winning cause when both of their bigs have played stellar games is when they’ve been able to either win games or have better shots at winning.

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