Chicago Bulls: Markkanen slays Kanter with monster dunk

Lauri Markkanen caught the New York Knicks napping and punished Enes Kanter for jumping with a thunderous third-quarter dunk as the Chicago Bulls topped the Knicks 122-119 (2OT).

Lauri Markkanen joined the Chicago Bulls as a seven-foot 3-point marksman after the mold of Dirk Nowitzki and Kristaps Porzingis, whom he just played against tonight.

And he did put on a shooting clinic in the Bulls’ 122-119 double-overtime win over the New York Knicks, hitting 8-of-15 from long range en route to 33 points. In doing so, he tied Nowitzki for the most triples made in a game by a seven-footer.

But he showed Enes Kanter a slightly different flavor to his game in the third quarter. And it wasn’t the finesse kind of touch that Markkanen usually employs, either.

No, there was absolutely nothing finesse about this.

My goodness. That is pretty much a poster child for poster dunks right there.

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Now, in fairness to Kanter and the Knicks, Markkanen typically doesn’t bring the ball up much and prefers to shoot first rather than put the ball on the floor much. As such, you can’t blame them for being a bit surprised at the rookie turning the corner the way he did. Not that Doug McDermott was ever a great defender anyway, of course.

And you can tell with the way Kanter shuffled on over that he was not prepared for the wrath Markkanen was about to unleash on him. Well…I bet he won’t make that mistake again.

If you’re a Chicago Bulls fan, you have to be thrilled with what you’ve seen from the seventh-overall pick.

I expected him to contribute solidly as a rookie, which he has, but I didn’t envision some of this. Specifically, even when he’s not shooting well, he always finds other ways to help the Bulls compete: hustle, passing, rebounding, whatever.

And now we know that he doesn’t mind rampaging to the rim with bad intentions now and again.

Next: Nikola Mirotic possibly heading to Pistons

All in all, everything’s coming up aces for the kid, even in a losing season for the Chicago Bulls. I can’t wait to see what he does when this team is good.

But I bet the Knicks have seen just about enough of Markkanen for a while. And something tells me Kanter won’t want to talk much about this.