Daily Bulls

The Chicago Bulls will start the regular season 1-0 for the second consecutive season with their 116-108 win over the Miami Heat. DeMar DeRozan led the Bulls with 37 points, 28 points in the second half. He joins Jordan as the only players in Bulls history to score 37 or more points in a season opener. Nikola Vucevic got his first double-double of the season with 15 points and 17 rebounds. Jimmy Butler scored 24 points, and Bam Adebayo got 12 points but struggled to shoot 5-for-15 from the field.

1. Don’t leave the Shooters Open

For the first time in Tyler Herro’s NBA career, he got the chance to be a starter for the season opener and showed early in the game why he deserved the four-year-$130M contract extension. He got going early by scoring 1/3 of the Heat’s points in the first quarter against the Bulls with 11 points and finished with 22 points. Max Strus contributed with 22 points off the bench, going 5-for-7 from three. The other main shooter for Miami, Duncan Robinson, got five points with only making one three-pointer.

Miami’s three-point shooting was the main reason for Chicago’s being down by nine points early in the first quarter. The Bulls must know who the deadly shooters are and stay on them at all times during the game. Defending the three-point is critical for Chicago to stay in games. Miami finished the first half shooting 52.9% from three but shot 27.3% from three in the second half.

2. Solid Bulls debuts by Drummond and Dragic

In his Bulls debut, Andre Drummond had nine points and five rebounds but also went 5-for-5 from the free-throw line. Drummond provides the most needed big-man boost that the Bulls were looking for last season. He did finish the game with the worst plus/minus with -9. But if Vucevic, for some reason, goes down with an injury, Chicago can trust Drummond to play 25+ minutes, unlike Tony Bradley or Tristin Thompson last season.

During the preseason, one player that struggled was Goran Dragic. Dragic went 4-for-4 from three in the first half. But Dragic provided the spark the Bulls needed to get their first lead of the game during the second quarter. The last time that happened for Dragic was when he played for Miami.

3. Great Second Half for Chicago

The Bulls started the second half with a 34-19 run, and all of a sudden, Miami found themselves down 93-78. One of the significant reasons for the big run was because of their defense. Chicago forced Miami to take tough shots and shut down Jimmy Butler in the second half. Butler went 1-for-6 from the field in the second half. Slowly, the Bulls built their lead and got must needed stops.

4. Hot Second Half for DeMar DeRozan

Another reason for a tremendous second half was because DeMar DeRozan became alive in the second half after scoring only eight points in the first half. DeRozan scored 19 points and played the entire third quarter. After Miami got back in the game, DeRozan got in and made sure the Heat had no chance. DeRozan finished the game with 37 points, nine assists, and six rebounds.

Final Thoughts

No Lavine No Problem

Many Bulls fans were upset with the Zach Lavine news about not playing in the season opener. But Chicago didn’t have any problems without Lavine. Even without Lavine, they beat one of the top five teams in the Eastern Conference. Chicago forced 19 turnovers, which resulted in 17 points. Lavine will not play on Friday and will likely play on Saturday against the improved Cavaliers.

Heat couldn’t finish comeback

Miami cut the Bulls’ lead down to four points, 102-98, with a Max Strus three, but Chicago responded fast. For the rest of the game, Miami couldn’t get any stops, and there wasn’t any production. No one, including Jimmy Butler, could have stopped DeMar DeRozan. Miami will look to get their first win on Friday against the Boston Celtics, who eliminated them in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Up Next

Chicago will travel to Washington D.C. to face the Wizards on Friday.

Miami will stay home to host Boston on Friday.

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