Bulls Lose to Trail Blazers in Real Time

Ever wonder what one’s thoughts could be as a basketball game progresses? Yeah, we’ve got Twitter, but who’s got time to read a game’s entire tweets? We’re all busy people, so we’ve decided to bring Twitter to the blog, not the other way around. Here’s what someone might have thought during the Bulls’ 124–112 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday.

Bulls 0, Trail Blazers 0: The Bulls have their black uniforms tonight, the same ones they wore when Derrick Rose tore his meniscus here in 2013.

Bulls 2, Trail Blazers 2: The Bulls are lucky to have someone who thrives at cleaning up messes in the paint like Wendell Carter Jr.

Trail Blazers 8, Bulls 4: This is gonna be another one of those “Jusuf Nurkic makes the Bulls look stupid for trading his rights on draft night” games, isn’t it?

Trail Blazers 11, Bulls 8: Chandler Hutchison can only be happy to have more opportunities to drive with Justin Holiday gone.

Trail Blazers 13, Bulls 10: Maybe not a good idea to leave Kris Dunn alone in the paint to fend for himself when he’s being surrounded in all directions.

Trail Blazers 13, Bulls 12: Nice alley-oop from Zach LaVine to Carter, followed by good defense on the other end to deny Portland.

Bulls 20, Trail Blazers 19: The more Dunn can knock down that 3, the better he will become and the better he will seem to everyone else. He needs to just go off one night. Yeah, he’s got two 24-point games already this season, but what about 30?

Bulls 24, Trail Blazers 23: LaVine with moves that would make the most creative drivers in the game jealous.

Bulls 29, Trail Blazers 28: LaVine makes a rainbow of a 3-pointer. Beautiful.

Trail Blazers 30, Bulls 29 (end of first quarter): No shock as LaVine, Carter and Dunn have combined 25 of the Bulls’ first 29 points. Those three have looked ready from the opening tip. Can the bench at least hold water as we begin the second quarter?

Trail Blazers 41, Bulls 35: Uh oh. Nik Stauskas is heating up from beyond the arc. Michigan fans gotta be happy. Double since many of them probably loved the Bad Boys, too. Oh to be from Detroit (I don’t really mean that).

Trail Blazers 45, Bulls 41: The Bulls are being outscored, 23–12, in bench points. It really shows how little depth they have. They’re finding shots, but who do you really trust when your starters need a break? That’s what they need to figure out when accumulating young talent for the foreseeable future. Still, you can’t argue with Antonio Blakeney’s eight points on 3-of-5 shooting.

Trail Blazers 45, Bulls 43: Waiting for Lauri Markkanen to break out on the scoresheet. He’s got only four points on 2-of-5 shooting so far, and those points have come from up close.

Trail Blazers 51, Bulls 43: The Bulls are late on defense, and Jim Boylen ain’t pleased. He knows his team will be buried if that doesn’t change. Time to call a timeout.

Trail Blazers 53, Bulls 45: The Bulls didn’t allow Portland to get to the free-throw line for over 75 percent of the first half. They’ve now allowed six shots from the charity stripe.

Trail Blazers 56, Bulls 51 (halftime): LaVine gets three free throws to close the half and makes two of them. A desperation pass for Portland is knocked away, and that’s that. The Bulls bent at times in the first 24 minutes, but have shown they’re here to compete in the City of Roses. Hopefully, that won’t change after the break.

Trail Blazers 60, Bulls 55: Nurkic is a mountain of a man. I would be deathly afraid if I saw him coming my way in the lane.

Trail Blazers 66, Bulls 59: Credit to Portland. It made some long passes on that last possession to confuse the Bulls and ultimately get an open corner 3 from CJ McCollum. The Bulls couldn’t tell where to turn their focus.

Trail Blazers 68, Bulls 64: Noticing the WGN feed is behind the NBA.com play-by-play. Probably shouldn’t look while the action is ongoing.

Trail Blazers 70, Bulls 68: Not sure if Nurkic really fouled Carter, but I’ll take the two free throws.

Trail Blazers 74, Bulls 70: The refs have been calling fouls, real and imagined, a lot more closely in this quarter. Could be bad news for the Bulls since it would allow Portland to open it up.

Trail Blazers 78, Bulls 75: The Bulls have badly missed Bobby Portis’ intense play. Happy to see his time off from injury didn’t affect that.

Trail Blazers 80, Bulls 75: McCollum is in a zone, hence his 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the field. Damian Lillard only has eight points, but I don’t expect him to stay quiet.

Trail Blazers 82, Bulls 78: Portis has 10. Leave him in there as long as possible, at least until the end of the quarter.

Trail Blazers 88, Bulls 83: Stacey King attributes the Bulls’ increase in fouls to their own frustration of not getting calls. Don’t know about that, but at least they have more urgency towards wanting the ball.

Trail Blazers 95, Bulls 85 (end of third quarter): The Bulls have gotten loose with their defense, leading to successful second chances for Portland. Perhaps my comment about the Bulls’ need to have the ball was premature.

Trail Blazers 98, Bulls 90: Ryan Arcidiacono passes to Carter, who lays it in and completes the and-one. Tonight really has shown Carter’s value to any team, even a bad one like the Bulls.

Trail Blazers 102, Bulls 90: The Bulls’ offense is getting desperate, hence LaVine’s quick miss from 3-point range. Meanwhile, the Trail Blazers calmly are running their offense and creating opportunities both from the field and chances to shoot free throws.

Trail Blazers 106, Bulls 94: If Meyers Leonard doesn’t end up on the SportsCenter Top 10 for that dunk, I wonder what out there tonight was better.

Trail Blazers 112, Bulls 96: The Trail Blazers have made themselves at home from 3-point range. Back-to-back treys from McCollum and Seth Curry prompt Boylen to call for time. The Bulls aren’t quite out of it, but probably will be very soon. Simply more talent on the other side.

Trail Blazers 115, Bulls 98: Is there anything the Bulls can do to slow down this 3-point barrage by Portland? They might as well set out lawn chairs for themselves.

Trail Blazers 117, Bulls 98: The Bulls are drained. Nothing’s falling on offense, and the defense is slightly above the “for show” level. Have to imagine the dogs will be called off soon.

Trail Blazers 119, Bulls 103: Hutchison one of the few Bulls still with something left in the tank. Hope to see the penetration he’s displayed tonight a lot more in the near future.

Trail Blazers 122, Bulls 109: Shaquille Harrison remains a quiet but effective player off the bench. It’s a shame he doesn’t get more notice.

Trail Blazers 124, Bulls 112 (end of game): This final score is indicative of Portland pulling away and the Bulls’ bench making it closer than it was, especially in the fourth quarter. Don’t let that 29–27 margin fool you. You saw that 19-point lead a few scores up.

McCollum led all scorers with 24 points. Lillard achieved a double-double of 16 points and 10 assists. Nurkic came close to one with 18 points and eight rebounds, all on the defensive end. Off the bench for Portland, Curry scored 17, and Zach Collins had 16 points and nine boards before fouling out.

Four of the five Bulls starters scored in double figures, led by Carter’s 22. LaVine scored 18, but shot an ineffective 6 of 19 from the field. Dunn scored 15 to go with seven assists, and Markkanen finished with 10. Portis and Blakeney came off the bench to score 15 and 12 points, respectively.

The Bulls continue their five-game road trip out West on Friday when they face the Golden State Warriors. Any guesses on how that will turn out? None? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since they would be far too easy.