The Chicago Bulls fell to the Philadelphia 76ers, 127-105 Thursday night.
On paper, it looked like the Chicago Bulls should be able to kick off the second half of the season with a win against a shorthanded 76ers group. Instead, the Bulls suffered a 22 point loss to Philadelphia despite the absence of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons for the 76ers.
The Bulls were healthy for the first time in a long time in this one as both Lauri Markkanen and Otto Porter Jr. returned from lengthy absences in the team’s first game back from the All-Star break. Still, that wasn’t enough to beat the top-seeded 76ers who started Tony Bradley and Mattisse Thybulle in place of Embiid and Simmons.
The loss dropped the Bulls to the 11th spot in the eastern conference. The 8th seed through 11th seed all trail the top of the conference 6ers by 8 games. There’s also a talented Washington Wizards roster only two games behind Chicago for the 11th spot they currently hold.
In what is best described as a disappointing and frustrating way to start the second half of the season, here are three takeaways from the Chicago Bulls 127-105 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.
No. 3: Lauri Markkanen’s play in his first game back was one of few positives
Markkanen returned to the court and rejoined the starting five without missing a beat. He shot 8-11 from the field, including 7-7 from behind the arc, on his way to 23 points over 27 minutes of play.
There was no hesitation or rust in his game on the offensive end. He was confident and decisive early and fans should be excited about the potential of him being healthy the rest of the season. He’s coming up on a huge offseason for himself and the Bulls as he will be a restricted free agent, and play like this will help the Bulls evaluate what kind of money they can give him to stay in Chicago.
Defensively his game was not very good, but at this point, that isn’t much of a surprise at all. The 76ers feasted on lineups that featured Markkanen and Thaddeus Young together in the frontcourt, which leads to takeaway number two.