Wednesday's matchup with the Cleveland Cavaliers was an opportunity for the Bulls to right the ship. Instead, it feels a lot more like the ship is sinking after another tough loss due to some poor execution down the stretch. It is of course early in the season and the Bulls can turn things around but it will take a stronger effort from the team as a whole.

Putting up a better effort on the glass was something brought up in our preview of Wednesday's game.

The Bulls had been outrebounded in three of their four games heading into Wednesday night and they lost the rebounding battle again on Wednesday. The Cavaliers outrebounded the Bulls 47-32, with Kevin Love leading the way with 20 rebounds.

While the rebounding was a colossal concern, the Bulls' lack of trust in the pass also stood out.

The Cavaliers as a team finished with 25 assists, the same total as the Bulls. But it was the potential assists that the Bulls left on the table that hurt them in this game. While the defense is perhaps the biggest concern with this team, we looked at the passing, as the Bulls rank 28th in the league in passes per game five games into the season.

We took a deep dive into Markkanen's game specifically, seeing as he sat the last 7 minutes, 12 seconds of the game.

1st quarter

Decision-making is the biggest area where Markkanen can improve and that is on both offense and defense.

In the opening period, we saw one of Markkanen's main issues show, as he missed an uncontested layup at the rim for his first shot attempt.

With 1:35 left in the first quarter, Markkanen drove on rookie Kevin Porter Jr. and managed to draw a second defender, Love, into the paint. Rather than kick it out to the open Carter in the corner, he forced up a layup that was missed and rebounded by Love.

Markkanen ended the first quarter with only 3 points but the bigger issue was that Love was getting open looks, and seemed headed for a big night.

🚨 Lauri 3-pointer alert 🚨



He's gonna be okay. Stream the game here https://t.co/S22eNp87PP pic.twitter.com/txXLEylNOY — Bulls Talk (@NBCSBulls) October 30, 2019

2nd quarter

Markkanen was quiet in the second quarter, only getting up two shot attempts. He looked comfortable making a pick-and-pop 3-pointer on a feed from Ryan Arcidiacono and missed a wide-open 3-pointer off of a look from Zach LaVine. Opponents focus on Markkanen's 3-point shooting, which in turn leads to hard closeouts.

No one is going to ask Markkanen to turn down open 3-point looks—and he shouldn't—but probing the defense a bit by driving, passing, and re-locating a la Steph Curry, would perhaps add some cohesiveness to an offense that is lacking identity.

When Lauri looks to penetrate the defense and create for his teammates, good things happen:

Lauri ➡ LaVine ➡ Easy 2 pic.twitter.com/afHCpogMew — Bulls Talk (@NBCSBulls) October 31, 2019

He finished with 3 assists and no turnovers on the night but there were still key missed opportunities by 'The Finnisher' later on.

While this post is focused on his passing, Markkanen put up a solid rebounding effort on Wednesday night but as Robin Lopez showcased last season, boxing out is much more vital to team success than individual rebound numbers.

Love was a rebounding machine on Wednesday and while it no one player's fault, it doesn't reflect well on Markkanen's effort that Love tied a franchise record in the first half.

.@kevinlove recorded 16 REB in the 1st H of #CavsBulls tonight, tying the @cavs franchise record for rebounds in any half (done so 4 other times). Love already has his 4th straight double-double at the half (10 PTS/16 REB). #Cavs50 #BeTheFight — Cavs Notes (@CavsNotes) October 31, 2019

3rd quarter

In the 3rd quarter, Markkanen missed three of his four shots. He missed a pick-and-pop 3-pointer over the 6-foot-5 Jordan Clarkson at the 10:56 mark, when driving the ball would've put more pressure on the Cleveland defense, with only Love in the paint to protect the basket.

Markkanen failed to score on Cedi Osman in a post up situation where he failed to get deep post position, starting his move with two feet outside the paint. He needs to work establishing low post position early so he isn't forced to take shots where he is not getting his feet underneath him.

The most egregious non-pass by Markkanen came with 1:26 left in the 3rd quarter.

Markkanen slips the ball screen in the pick-and-roll and receives a nice (and on-time) pass from Kris Dunn. Clarkson comes over to help but rookie Porter also provides help defense, which he does not need to do. He quickly realizes this mistake and makes his way back towards Coby White.

But there is a window for Markkanen in which he has the ball with those two Cavs collapsing into the paint and he has multiple shooters open on the perimeter.

He ignores both Arcidiacono and White on the perimeter and the result of the above play is another missed layup by Markkanen.

4th quarter

Though he started off his fourth quarter by again missing an open 3-pointer off of a nice screen from Carter, Markkanen looked like he was settling in, at least on the offensive end. With 10:20 left, Lauri fakes a handoff to White and then uses a spin move to set up a nice fadeaway mid-range jump shot.

After splitting a pair of free throws at the 8:05 mark, Markkanen was taken out at 7 minutes, 12 seconds and was never re-inserted into the game. The Bulls were down by two points when Markkanen exited the game and were down by 6 points by the 6:12 mark. They, of course, went on to lose the game by 6 points.

Thaddeus Young is the player that came in for Markkanen, and while Young did present a much better match up for Love on defense, Love still ended up hitting a bank shot to put the Cavs up by 4 points with under a minute left. It leaves one to wonder: Would Markkaen's skillset have been better served down the stretch than Young's veteran savvy?

Markkanen ended Wednesday night's loss to the Cavaliers with 16 points, 8 rebounds, and a surprisingly efficient 3 assists and no turnovers. This was a big step in the right direction for Markkanen's playmaking but there is still much, much room for improvement.

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