Lee’s late three denies first win
3 takeaways from Bulls’ 0-3 start after they blew a late lead to Warriors
One night after coach Billy Donovan issued a challenge to his players, the young core of the Chicago Bulls responded with a much more inspired performance Sunday night against the Golden State Warriors.
Four Bulls players scored more than 20 points, including Zach LaVine, who led the team with 33 and nearly secured a win with the go-ahead basket with 5 seconds left. LaVine expressed regret after the game for attacking the basket and scoring too early because it left too much time for the Warriors to respond.
And although the Bulls kept the ball out of Stephen Curry’s hands on the inbound pass, the Warriors got an unlikely game-winning 3-pointer from guard Damion Lee to steal a 129-128 win.
“It felt good that we were in the game and competing,” LaVine said. “Realistically, the last couple games, we haven’t been able to play into the fourth quarter, so it is frustrating because we had a good game, but (it) wasn’t good enough to pull out the victory.
“We’ve just got to build on the things we did well today and things that we should be doing. It has to be a constant fromnowon.
The Bulls still have issues to cleanup— toomany turnovers (24) and prolonged lapses on defense — and they fell to 0-3 despite shooting 51.2% from the field and taking a 121-112 lead on Wendell Carter Jr.’s basket with 3:58 to play.
But this was easily their best performance of the season, even if it was against a Warriors team that seems poised to cure a lot of teams’ ills.
Lauri Markkanen continued his strong start to the season with 23 points and seven rebounds before he left the game in the fourth quarter with a bruised calf. Carter (22 points on 8-for-9 shooting and 13 rebounds) and Coby White (20 points, seven rebounds and five assists) looked much more comfortable after a rough first two games.
It was nearly enough to help the Bulls survive a late surge from Curry, who had an off shooting night (5for-15 from 3-point range) but scored 25 of his 36 points in the second half to keep the game close.
Overall, this game was a step in the right direction for a team that looked lost and non competitive to start the season, even if it underscored how evenly matched these two teams are at the moment.
“I give them a lot of credit,” Donovan said of his players. “They’re trying to get better. This is going to be a process for these guys. At this level, it’s so hard to win and there’s some suffering probably in that locker room … but when it gets that painful, that’s when it becomes that important.
“For what they went through tonight, they can walk off the court with their head held high because of the way they competed.”
Here are three takeaways from the Bulls’ third straight loss to the start the season:
1. Lauri Markkanen is off to a strong start offensively: Although the Bulls have been off to a rough start as a team, Markkanen’s performance on offense through the first three games has been a bright spot.
He shot the ball well again Sunday night, knocking down 7 of his 13 field goal attempts and 4 of 7 from 3-point range. He attacked the basket when he sensed a mismatch on the floor, getting to the free-throw line to knock down 5 of his 7 free-throw attempts, and a lineup with him as the small-ball center was one of the Bulls’ most productive groups.
Through three games of a contract year, the early signs are encouraging from Markkannen, who is averaging 20.0 points and 7.7 rebounds while shooting 47.6% from3-point land.
“I think Lauri’s done a really nice job on both ends of the floor,” Donovan said before Sunday’s game. “I think he’s getting in there and trying to rebound, I think he’s been aggressive offensively. He’s done a lot of things. He’s played in some pick-and-roll, we had him come off screens, he’s set screens, he’s had drives to the basket, so I think he’s done a really good job.
“I know for a player of his caliber, so much is predicated on him making shots, but I think he just needs to get out of that. There’s going to be nights he doesn’t shoot the ball well, but if he could be a threat … he’s always a threat out there and even if he’s not making shots it opens things up and I think as long as he’s being aggressive, that helps us.”
2. Wendell Carter Jr. bounced back from a rough first two games: Here’s how the first two games went for Carter:
After the opener, he apologized to teammates in the locker room for his performance defensively. Following the second game, he noted how much he needed to get out of his own head after misses and not get too down on himself.
So perhaps no Bulls player could have used a strong performance Sunday more than Carter, who was an effective part of their offense against the Warriors.
Carter hit all but one of his shots from the floor (8 of 9) and stayed involved in a few ways. He rolled to the basket to form a two-man game with LaVine. He knocked down a midrange jump shot and looked more confident on his 3-point attempts, even knocking one down in the third quarter. The Bulls are asking Carter to become more involved offensively this season and when it works, it should look a lot like Sunday’s game against the Warriors.
“I feel like I just got tomy spots, took the same shots I’ve been taking, but they were falling,” Carter said. “My work is starting to show. I trust the work that I put in.
“It’s a beautiful struggle, but I also trust theprocess.”
3. Coach Billy Donovan continues to mix and match the rotation: After injuries and healthrelated absences limited the Bulls roster during the preseason, Donovan has used the first few games to mix in a few lineups to find the right combinations. He has kept his starting lineup intact — despite hinting he was considering changes after a dismal first two games — but shuffled his rotation off the bench.
Garrett Temple and Tomáš Satoranský were the first two players off the bench against the Warriors, and Chandler Hutchison got extended playing time as the backup wing, taking the rotation minutes Denzel Valentine played the night before. Donovan experimented with a loaded wing, small ball lineup that included Markkanen at center with Hutchison, Otto Porter, Temple and Satoranský, a lineup that found some success as the Bulls went on a run in the second quarter.
“Some of these guys just haven’t played together, and it’s going to be some trial and error in putting different guys out there,” Donovan said. “I think that starting group, if youlook at it, in a lot of ways that plus-minus has not been something that’s been very good at times. So I think try to look at maybe do you bring guys off earlier? Do you do different things to try to help the group? It’s a small sample size just having been two games, but I think at some point you have to look at that as a coach to try to help the group, put them in the best position. And then obviously they’ve got to play better as well, or more consistent. Youhave to look