Daily Bulls

The Chicago Bulls will play their second preseason of 2022 against the Denver Nuggets tonight at 7:00 CT. Chicago lost their first preseason on Tuesday against the New Orleans Pelicans, 129-125. Denver also lost their first preseason game on Monday against the Oklahoma City Thunder, 112-101. Both teams were sixth seeds last season in the postseason, and both lost in five games in the first round, with the Bulls losing to the Bucks and the Nuggets losing to the future NBA Champions, the Golden State Warriors.

Matchup to Watch

Jamal Murray vs Ayo Dosunmu

If Nikola Jokic were playing against the Bulls, the matchup would be Jokic vs. Vucevic. But with Jokic not playing, the next best matchup will be Ayo Dosunmu against Jamal Murray. With the starters not being released, I expect Dosunmu to start for the second straight preseason game. Against the Pelicans, he got 10 points and three assists in 23 minutes. Dosunmu will get his first defensive test of the preseason against Murray, who has not played in a regular season game since April 12th, 2021.

Jamal Murray will be the most significant player for the Nuggets tonight, with Nikola Jokic being ruled out earlier today. NBA fans can quickly forget this man put up a 50-point performance in the Bubble against the Utah Jazz. In Murray’s first game since last year, he scored 10 points, going 4-for-7 from the field in 15 minutes of action. Before he got hurt, Murray averaged 21.2 points, 4.8 assists, and 4.0 rebounds in the 2020-21 season.

3 Keys to the Game

Hot Start

Yes, it’s just preseason, and it was the first preseason game for the Bulls. But that’s not an excuse for allowing 40 points in the first quarter. The Pelicans got a good start with a 13-4 run and finished the quarter with 40 points. Chicago scored 25 points but couldn’t get back in the game until the second half. Everybody except for Vucevic didn’t want to play any defense and not rotate to shooters standing at the three.

Denver struggled in the first quarter against the Thunder on Monday as well. The Nuggets out outscored 30-21 in the first quarter. If Chicago can click more offensively and show how good their new “random” offense, that could be a massive help in getting their first preseason win of 2022.

Paint Defense

Another reason for the Bulls’ slow start on Tuesday was their lack of paint defense. The Bulls allowed 18 points in the paint in the first quarter alone and 62 points for the entire game. I understand that 12 points out of those came from Zion Williamson, who is unstoppable.

Chicago finished the game with seven blocks, four coming from Vucevic, who had four. One player to look for a solid bounce-back game defensively is Andre Drummond. Drummond was active on the boards with seven but was not present in the paint.

Take Care of the Ball

Again, it’s the preseason, and you can expect teams to commit many turnovers in their first preseason game, but 26 turnovers are too much. Zach Lavine led the Bulls with four turnovers. The Bulls had eight turnovers in the first quarter, allowing New Orleans to score eight fast break points.

The Pelicans got held ten fast breaks for the rest of the game, which helped Chicago get back in the game. But losing by double-digits in the first quarter will hurt your chances of winning any games, especially if you want to make a deep playoff push.

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