First quarter
Bulls big man Luke Kornet won the opening tap to give the Bulls the first possession. It didn’t prove to be a momentum builder.
The game would get underway with a slow start for both teams.
On a positive note, Bulls point guard Tomas Satoransky appeared to be playing aggressively against his former team. This appears to have become a trend for him. In previous outings, the Bulls have benefitted from having an aggressive Satoransky on the floor. For one thing, when Satoransky gets past his defender to probe the paint, it tends to open up opportunities for his teammates to succeed.
Another thing to note is the Bulls were attacking the paint trying not to rely too heavily on outside shooting. The team turned to forward Thaddeus Young in some instances to create plays from the post.
In another instance, forward Chandler Hutchison met up with Wizards big man Ian Mahinmi for a bit of a block party. Hutchison ultimately denied what would’ve been a dunk.
Check it out:
In the span of 3 seconds, Chandler Hutchison has a block of the year candidate & then gets posterized. pic.twitter.com/ioniAEjDBr
— John Schuhmann (@johnschuhmann) February 12, 2020
In other developments, LaVine had been quiet through the 6:46 mark of the first quarter. Through this point in the game, he had not yet attempted a shot.
A short time later, LaVine was fouled on a drive to the bucket at the 6:22 mark. He split a pair of shots at the free-throw line.
One challenge facing the Bulls was the way the big men had trouble protecting the paint and rotating in some instances, which benefitted the Wizards.
At the same time, LaVine doesn’t have the luxury at least for now of turning to Wendell Carter or Lauri Markkanen to create a bit of two-man action to counter the moments when the Bulls’ defense fails to get the necessary stops. In these instances, the Bulls turned to Kornet and Cristiano Felicio to help fill the void. It didn’t appear to fare well this time around.
In case you missed it, Kornet capped off a career-high 25 point game against the 76ers on Sunday. A similar level of productivity did not result this time around, which was not surprising. Part of the reason Kornet is getting minutes is because the Bulls are shorthanded. The same holds true of Felicio.
It’s important to point out that LaVine quietly made his first field goal of the game north of the 3-minute mark. Fortunately for the Bulls, the Wizards weren’t getting a lot out of Bradley Beal, either. He also had been having a quiet game through this point in the game.
Still, the Bulls trailed the Wizards 36-26 at the end of the first quarter.