Bulls at Hornets: Lauri Markkanen, Coby White shine in loss

Although the Chicago Bulls dropped their opener to the Charlotte Hornets, Lauri Markkanen and Coby White put on a show for the fans.

It was a tale of two halves, included with a tale of two half quarters for the Chicago Bulls. In their opener with the Charlotte Hornets, the Bulls fell behind early as they went down by eight at halftime.

Then, in the second half, they came alive.

The Bulls poured in 40 points in the third quarter, and finally soared to a 10-point lead with about seven minutes left in the fourth. It was at that point, the wheels fell off.

All night long, the Hornets lived off the three ball. Between P.J. Washington, Marvin Williams and Devonte’ Graham, Charlotte was on fire from long distance all night long. Washington hit a whopping seven of his 11 attempts from 3-point range and finished with a team-high 27 points.

Charlotte hit a ridiculous 23 shots from beyond the arc and finished shooting 51 percent from that distance. They used the three-point shot to erase the fourth-quarter deficit and ended up pulling it out, 126-125 in a game that came down to the wire.

On the Bulls’ side, it was easy to see their big weakness is still on the defensive end. That will have to change should they be competitive all season long. But, the positives were there.

Lauri Markkanen came out aggressive, with 12 points in the first quarter. He ended the night with 35 points, 17 rebounds, a pair of assists and a steal. He was clearly the focal point of the offense, which seemed to work well for the Bulls.

Rookie point guard Coby White also played very well in his debut, scoring 17 points and dishing out seven assists while going 6-for-13 from the field.

It’s clear to see the potential with this Bulls team, and why White was the no-brainer pick at no. 7 overall in this year’s draft. He meshes well with this core and played a little bit of both guard spots. White was on the floor with both Ryan Arcidiacono and Kris Dunn at one point, which was a bit weird, however played to their advantage at times.

White ended up playing more minutes than any point guard on the team, with 27 minutes in his debut. If anything was crystal clear after this one, it’s that head coach Jim Boylen already loves his first round pick and is going to use him early and often. Now, it’s up to the defensive side to improve going forward.