Bulls lose to Thunder in home opener |
Chicago - When you talk about the right way to rebuild a roster, the Oklahoma City Thunder (2-0) must be at the top of your list. This team lost all their stars, gutted their roster to struggle for more than six seasons, and acquired loads of first-round talent in the process.
They ultimately used that talent to build the youngest roster in the NBA, which the Chicago Bulls (1-2) could use as an example of how to fix their team. After splitting their first two games of the season on the road, the Bulls welcomed the Thunder to the United Center on Saturday for their home opener, hoping to keep the momentum going. Instead, the Bulls found out firsthand how good the Thunder can be. There is a reason why this team is one of the best defensive teams in the NBA, and they showed the Bulls how good they can be defensively in a 114-95 road victory to improve to 2-0 while pushing the Bulls back under .500. Anytime you look at a final score and see such a lopsided difference, you think about a team being dominated from start to finish. That wasn't the case, as the Bulls managed to hang with the Thunder in three of the four quarters. Had it not been for the second quarter, when the Thunder outscored the Bulls 33-18 to break the game open, Chicago was only outscored by four points the rest of the game while also outscoring the Thunder by four points in the final quarter. The second quarter is something that has happened to this team far too often, and they need to figure out a way to eliminate those rough quarters, as shooting under 40% isn't going to cut it in today's NBA. Leading the way for the Bulls yet again was Zach Lavine, who finished with 22 points on 6-13 shooting. Whatever happened with Lavine from the end of last season to this season is a breath of fresh air, as he looks like the player of old and seems to have bought into the system more this season than in the past. While Lavine has played well all season, Nikola Vucevic has been the team's most consistent player through three games, and that may shock many fans. With 18 points and 13 rebounds, Vucevic has not only posted a double-double in all three games, but he continues to produce at a level the Bulls need him to if they want to try and make the playoffs in 2024-25. Those were two of the Bulls' main contributors in this one, as scoring was tough to come by, but Josh Giddey did manage to put up another respectable game against his former team. This was the first time in his young NBA career that Giddey was going up against the team that drafted him, and with 14 points and seven rebounds, he continued to show what he is capable of when counted on. Ultimately, the Bulls would like a little more production out of him, especially when Coby White (nine points) and Patrick Williams (three points) can't score, which is becoming an all-too-familiar issue with Williams in what is now his fifth year. Despite more than eight players seeing action off the bench, only Julian Phillips and his season-high nine points made an impact, as this was a rough night from start to finish for this team. While scoring was an issue all night for the Bulls, the same can't be said for the Thunder, who had three players score at least 20 points, with all of them coming in the starting five. Jalen Williams was one of those three, as he led the way with 24 points and nearly posted a triple-double. Williams is one of those players who came out of nowhere last season to improve this team, and now that the Thunder have seen what he can do, he will be counted on even more this season. As expected, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had another solid game. He led all scorers with 17 first-half points before finishing with 23 points. Alexander came away with four steals and eight rebounds and continued to show he is much more than just a potent scorer. The same can be said about Chet Holmgren, who appears set to have a breakout season this year and finished with 21 points and 16 rebounds. Anytime three of your starters put in that strong an effort, you're putting your team in a position to win, as the Bulls had no answers for either one of the guys. Apart from them, the Thunder didn't have much of a go-to option. Cason Wallace had nine points and seven boards to be the next most productive starter, with the bench doing what they needed to do to pick up the dominating win on the road.
