By Richard Kagan

The Oklahoma City Thunder had a bumpy flight from Minneapolis to Chicago. The nose of the airplane charter the team traveled on was dented. Thankfully the squad landed safely.

“You don’t never take anything for granted,” Russell Westbrook said. “(I) just feel thankful and blessed they were able to land the plane and everything was OK. Seeing stuff like that just shows you how you cherish life and you understand the important things in life and embrace every moment.”

When the game began, OKC gradually got into the flow. The feisty Bulls had trailed 26-23 at the end of the first quarter.  Then the Thunder went on a 16-2 run to take a 42-25 lead and for all intents, this game was over. The Bulls only scored 8 points in the second period to 24 for the Thunder. And, it was one of those nights. There was no momentum from the win versus the Atlanta Hawks, there was only OKC and Russell Westbrook, Paul George, and Carmelo Anthony.  The reigning and defending league MVP Westbrook had a triple double with 13 boards, 13 assists, and 12 points. Anthony scored 21 with five three-pointers, and Paul George added 20 on 4 of 5 trey attempts. The talent of OKC just took over and the Bulls weren’t in this game.

Chicago had 19 turnovers to 16 assists. It only made 29% of its shots from the floor. On three-point attempts, the team kept hoisting up shots, and missing them, to the tune of 27% made attempts.

Yes, it was ugly. The Bulls fall to 1-4. What do you say after a game like this?  “We got beat.”

Lauri Markkanen led the Bulls with 15 points. Justin Holiday had a rough night from the floor, making 4 of 16 shots, for 11 points. The veteran Robin Lopez scored 10.

The Bulls played an elite team in the Western Conference. Chicago is trying to sort out its roster issues.

This was a tough night for the Bulls. It looks like there will be more of them this season.