Carter rises to occasion against Gobert
Wendell Carter Jr. might have delivered his best game of the season against Utah on Thursday.
The second-year center stood toe-to-toe with Rudy Gobert, a two-time defensive player of the year. Carter finished with 18 points, 13 rebounds and had the best shooting percentage of any of the Bulls' starters (7-for-12). Gobert had 17 points, 12 boards and some key defensive stops, of course.
"Games like that can turn him into an all-star type big," teammate Thaddeus Young said. "Wendell's been amazing all season long. Can't say enough good things about him.
"He can be that kind of elbow-type player that can be kind of like that Al Horford-type player who can do a lot of different thing, who can make passes, who can shoot the basketball, has great touch on the inside, but also man the paint. That's what he's been. The biggest thing is just him is staying out of foul trouble."
Considering he had thumb surgery midway through last season, Carter has basically just completed one full year in the NBA. Thursday was his 79th career game.
"He's one of the tougher guys I've been around in this business," coach Jim Boylen said of Carter. "And that's amazing for how young he is."
Second string lags:
One issue that might help the Bulls turn around some of their narrow losses is the performance of the second unit.
That group hasn't been the same since Kris Dunn became a starter. Coach Jim Boylen tried using Shaq Harrison against Utah instead of Ryan Arcidiacono, who didn't play at all for the first time this season. Denzel Valentine has also hit a shooting slump after a good stretch.
All five Bulls' subs had a negative plus-minus against the Jazz. Coby White was a -15 and Daniel Gafford -13.
"Me and coach just talked about it," Thad Young said. "I told him Kris going into the first unit kind of stopped us a little bit, slowed us down a little bit. But I think we still have a more than capable group. We just have to adjust."
Boylen talked about missing Dunn's playmaking skills with the second group. He's tried to bend the rotation to get Dunn on the floor with the subs at times.
"It doesn't quite click like it used to," Boylen said. "That's one of the reasons we went with film today, is there's different things maybe we have to coach with the second unit, as Coby becomes more of a dominant ballhandler and we figure out that second unit. There's been some growing pains with that, but it is something we're working on, talking about and focused on."
G-League calling:
The Bulls sent Chandler Hutchison and Cristiano Felicio to play with the Windy City Bulls on Friday night. Hutchison has been out since Nov. 27 with a shoulder injury, while Felicio has yet to play this season and is coming off a broken wrist.