MORE FIGHT FALLOUT
Portis- Mirotic dustup still front and center; loss drops Bulls to 0- 3
CLEVELAND — Bulls center Robin Lopez is well aware that the Nikola Mirotic- Bobby Portis situation might need more fixing than first anticipated. Make that a lot more. The fact that Mirotic won’t return any of Portis’ calls or texts is becoming a concern.
‘‘ Yeah, I’m sure that we’re all thinking that,’’ Lopez said when he was asked before the Bulls’ 119- 112 loss Tuesday to the Cavaliers if there might be more damage in the relationship than initially thought.
Portis and Mirotic had an altercation in practice last week, leading Portis to punch Mirotic and send him to the hospital with two broken bones in his face and a concussion.
Most of the Bulls have reached out to Mirotic in text messages, but he only has responded to a select few, including Lopez.
Mirotic did stop into the Advocate Center with his agent last weekend, but he did so with no players in the building. Besides recovering from the concussion, Mirotic likely will need surgery to repair the damage from the punch.
Coach Fred Hoiberg said Mirotic is doing better, but there is no timetable for his return. Hoiberg was asked if he was concerned about Mirotic’s seeming disconnectedness from some of his teammates and said he wasn’t.
Mirotic’s teammates, however, might feel a little differently, with Lopez acknowledging it won’t be an easy fix.
‘‘ It’s hard to say at this point,’’ Lopez said when he was asked how the Bulls intend to heal as a unit. ‘‘ Whatever happens, we’ve got to come together as a team. You’ve got to come together as a group of guys and figure out what’s best for the squad.’’
What was best for the Bulls against the Cavaliers, at least in the first half, was rookie Lauri Markkanen. He scored 17 points before halftime, including a 5- for- 6 effort from three- point range. Markkanen’s first- half performance put him in the NBA record books for the most three-pointers made— 10— in the first three games of a career.
But the Cavaliers eventually overcame what was a 14- point deficit in the first quarter. They cut the Bulls’ lead to three points at halftime, then blitzed Markkanen each time he had the ball in the second half, even double- teaming him with LeBron James.
‘‘ That’s a dream come true for me because that was my favorite player when I was growing up, and you get to go against him,’’ Markkanen said of James. James returned the compliment. ‘‘ Watched him a lot at Arizona,’’ James said of Markkanen. ‘‘ He wore my shoes a couple of times. He actually did; he wore my retros. I liked that. Had to stay up very late to watch those Arizona games.
‘‘ But very confident kid. Can shoot the heck out of the ball. He’s going to continue to get better. The best thing about it is that he’s getting an opportunity. He’s a good player.’’ But James is a great player. ‘‘ The best on the planet,’’ Hoiberg said.
James definitely was too much for the Bulls ( 0- 3), finishing with 34 points and 13 assists. The Bulls were led by Justin Holiday’s 25 points.
As for Markkanen, he scored only two points in the second half to finish with 19. Still, he impressed.
‘‘ He’s going to be a heck of a player, man,’’ Hoiberg said. ‘‘ Just to see him out there battling the way he did against this type of competition on the road says a lot about him.’’