Any bright spots from Bulls' season-opening loss?
Bulls fans, calm down. They may have lost the season opener by 20 points on Wednesday, but all is not lost. There's still the NBA's new in-season tournament. Maybe they could win that, or at least get to the semifinals.
Actually, one thing to keep in mind about this defeat is the Bulls were down by 1 with three minutes left in the third quarter. Sure, that's when good teams shine, but it's not like the Bulls were terrible from start to finish against Oklahoma City. So there's a silver lining for you.
"Getting our (butt) kicked at home, that's a disrespect to us, disrespect to our fans," DeMar DeRozan said Thursday at the Advocate Center. "I just know we won't let that happen again, at least not from an effort standpoint."
A couple days ago, there were some suggestions here on how the Bulls' Big Three needed to evolve in order to become a playoff team, and basically all of the same old problems were on display in the opener.
Center Nikola Vucevic didn't get many touches. Part of the reason was because the Thunder decided not to let Vucevic bully rookie Chet Holmgren in the paint all game long, preferring to collapse the defense and let the Bulls shoot 3-pointers. Genius move, since the Bulls shot 28.6% from 3-point land.
The Bulls trailed 79-78 after Vucevic hit a hook shot in the lane, but then OKC went on a 12-0 run with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scoring 7 of those points. Early in the fourth, Isaiah Joe and Cason Wallace knocked down 3 straight 3-pointers to boost the lead to 16.
Gilgeous-Alexander was the best player on the court by a wide margin, finishing with 31 points and 10 assists, while hitting 12 of 18 shots. He broke open a close game and led his team to victory.
DeRozan did that a lot two years ago. He didn't have it in him Wednesday, scoring 20 points on 9 of 20 shooting. Will DeRozan be better next time or at 34, is he getting to the point where he's not able to carry a team?
That should be Zach LaVine's job now, but he didn't have a great game. He played just 10 minutes in the first half due to foul trouble and ended up with 16 points on 4 of 16 shooting.
The bottom line, SGA and Josh Giddey scored 47 points on 32 shots. DeRozan and LaVine had 36 points on 36 shots.
"We didn't respond when they did that run in the second half," LaVine said after the game. "Wasn't a great showing from us, didn't shoot the ball well, don't feel like we played with enough heart. That's on us. It's a terrible way to come out to stat the season, but we get the opportunity to bounce back."
No matter how it looked, it was still one game of 82. The Bulls might knock down more 3-pointers on Friday against Toronto at the United Center and their outlook will suddenly seem much better.
The Bulls held a players-only meeting after the game, which coach Billy Donovan felt was a positive development.
"The confrontation piece I think is a sign that it's important to them and they know there's things we've got to do better," he said. "I really like the way we played in the first half. This is this team's challenge, consistency."
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