Chicago Bulls: Love/hate list from last night’s blowout win over ATL

The Chicago Bulls took care of business last night in front of their home crowd. Here are some things I loved and some things I hated from the blowout win.

Last night’s blowout win should be taken with a grain of salt. The Atlanta Hawks have been one of the worst teams in the league all season, and last night, they were without star point guard Trae Young. But still, a win is a win.

Here’s my love/hate list from the Chicago Bulls’ 116-81 victory.

Love – Coby White’s confidence

Bulls rookie point guard Coby White had a really bad start to this game. He isn’t a guy that turns the ball over all that often, but he committed four turnovers in the opening period last night.

White got subbed out after his fourth turnover, got a talking-to on the bench, and then re-entered the game. From there on out, it was one of White’s best games of the season. He was efficient, aggressive and smart, finishing with 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and 2-of-3 shooting from 3-point range.

It’s a great sign that a 19-year-old kid can bounce back so fast after such a terrible start to the game. Good things are coming for Coby White.

Hate – John Collins with no resistance

John Collins is a great player, and he deserves a lot of credit for the stellar show he put on last night, but the Bulls should’ve done a better job of making things difficult for him. With Trae Young out of the lineup, everyone knew Collins was going to be the guy, but he still torched the Bulls, finishing with 34 points on an efficient 14-of-26 shooting from the field.

I would’ve loved to see the Bulls key in on Collins and make other Hawks players do most of the heavy lifting, but that didn’t happen.

Love – Wendell Carter Jr. channeling his inner Steph Curry

Okay, fine. Saying Wendell Carter Jr. channeled his inner Steph Curry last night is a bit extreme. But he did take three triples and connected on two of them. How fun is that?

Carter knocking down two threes is like Steph knocking down 12. You know he can do it, so it shouldn’t be that surprising, but it still makes for a fun spectator experience.

WCJ’s jumper is too smooth to be hesitating when wide open from deep. The Bulls need more of what he did last night.

Hate – Jim Boylen’s fourth-quarter substitutions

The Bulls were up by 25 points with 10:09 left in the fourth quarter and Jim Boylen decided to bring Lauri Markkanen — who had been battling an illness prior to last night’s game — back in. Then, a couple of minutes later, Boylen brought Zach LaVine, Tomas Satoransky and Wendell Carter Jr. back into the game.

I get that Boylen wants to make sure the win is secured, and I like the mentality of stepping on the opponent’s throat, but there’s a time and a place for that. It would’ve been nice to give the starters some extra rest last night, heading into a tough stretch of games.

Love – Doing what good teams do

I said earlier that last night’s win should be taken with a grain of salt — and that’s true — but it was still an impressive showing for the Bulls.

Good teams take care of business when other teams are struggling or short-handed. They don’t let bad teams hang around. They don’t give them a chance to win. That’s exactly what the Bulls did last night. They played 48 minutes of good basketball.

The Bulls will look to keep their positive momentum going when the Milwaukee Bucks come to town tomorrow night.