Chuck's Daily Check In 1.02.18

Final OT: Portland 124, Bulls 120. (Bulls 13-24, 9-9 at home).

LEADING SCORERS: Bulls: Dunn: 22. Portland: McCollum: 32.
LEADING REBOUNDERS: Bulls: Mirotic: 10. Portland: Nurkic: 15.
LEADING ASSISTS: Bulls: Valentine: 6. Portland: McCollum: 8.

CCI 24 SECONDS COMMENTARY: For the second straight game in a 36 hour period, the Bulls fought hard, left everything they had on the floor and came up empty losing in OT. Every starter scored in double figures, with Lauri Markkanen draining four 3-point field goals. Niko Mirotic and Bobby Portis played very well together on the floor. Niko provided an 18-10 game but was absent on the floor in the extra period as Fred Hoiberg explained after the game Mirotic is dealing with “a back issue.”

Portis was sensational with 14-7-4 . The Bulls had 58 rebounds, shot 40% from 3 point range and 82% from the foul line and lost. McCollum, Aminu, Connaughton and Turner were terrific, as well as Nurkic who grabbed 15 rebounds. Portland played without Damian Lillard who missed his fifth straight game.

WHAT DID CCI LEARN FROM THIS GAME? The Bulls are resilient. Bottom line, this club doesn’t quit. The Bulls are young and they are learning how to win and along the way there are bumps in the road. Whether it’s a turnover, a missed shot or not making the right read, these things will happen and it’s going to happen again. The key is as players gain experience, they turn things from a negative to a positive based on the growing pains learned under the pressure of executing at crunch time.

I love the style of play, love the passion of this team and the character of this club. I totally get it’s a performance based business but the joy of seeing this team develop is winning over the fan base and the NBA is taking notice.

NBA NEWS AND NOTES:

Speaking of Toronto, the Raptors got a franchise high 52 points from DeMar DeRozan and beat the Bucks in a wild 131-127 OT victory.The Raptors go to 25-10, 14-1 at home. DeRozan told reporters that he spent the afternoon watching the final minutes of Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals, in which Hall of Famer, Michael Jordan, and the Bulls beat Utah.

Rookie Jarrett Allen, another NBA big out of Texas, scored a career high 16 as the Nets edged Orland 98-95.

Jimmy Butler with 28 points as Minnesota won for the seventh time in eight games and 10th in 13 games. Karl- Anthony Towns recorded his 30th double-double of the season. Final: Timberwolves 114 Lakers 96.

The Bulls will miss James Harden Monday at the UC. The Rockets announced Harden will be out (hamstring) at least two weeks.

Thanks for reading CCI. Email me at cswirsky@bulls.com or Twitter: @ctsbulls.

Always a pleasure! Go Bulls !