Bulls cruise to another big win, this time over Nets
The sample size is small, but the victories are large.
The Bulls improved to 3-0 on the season with a wire-to-wire blowout victory at Brooklyn on Monday. Seven players scored in double figures as the Bulls rolled to a 118-88 victory over the Nets at the Barclays Center.
The Bulls haven't gone 3-0 to start a season since 1996-97 season, when they won 69 games and won the fifth of six championships.
The best way to explain the Bulls' hot start is the players are together. They're playing hard, sharing the ball and enjoying the success. A perfect example came early in Monday's game when the Bulls scored on a fast break, with the ball moving from Taj Gibson to Rajon Rondo to Dwyane Wade to Jimmy Butler for an alley-oop dunk with the ball never touching the ground. When Butler slammed home the dunk, players on the Bulls bench jumped to their feet in celebration.
"The great thing about the (Rondo, Wade and Butler), they've really developed a great chemistry," Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg told reporters after the game. "They talk a lot, they hang out together at home, on the road. When you like each other, you're going to go out and play for each other and that's been the great thing about these guys.
"We talked to them about how we want to play, we talked to them about the game plan. They hold each other accountable and they hold our whole team accountable. You have to have that if you want to be successful."
Butler led the Bulls with 22 points, followed by 16 points by Nikola Mirotic and 15 by backup guard Isaiah Canaan. The Bulls knocked down 11 of 27 shots from 3-point range and piled up a 58-45 rebound advantage. They led 38-20 after the first quarter and were never threatened.
Despite all the new faces, the Bulls have pulled together quickly. They've found a successful style of play and stuck with it through three games. After beating Boston in the opener, the Bulls have held fourth-quarter leads of at least 29 points in the last two wins against Indiana and Brooklyn.
"It's a fun way to play when you're out there sharing the ball like we're doing," Hoiberg said. "The ball's not sticking in guys' hands, at least early in the game. For the most part, we're making the right play out there. We scored 118 and had 20 turnovers. That's too many. We've got to cut that down. We've got to build habits for the long haul. When you play as hard as we have, good things happen."
The only downside to Monday's game was a left knee injury suffered by guard Michael Carter-Williams in the second quarter. Carter-Williams took a hard fall after challenging a shot under the basket and immediately grabbed his left knee. The third-year guard walked off the floor under his own power, but did not return to the game. The team called the injury a knee sprain and Carter-Williams will have an MRI exam today.
The Bulls should face their toughest test of the early season on Wednesday when they get a rematch with the Celtics in Boston. This weekend, they'll play their first set of back-to-back games, hosting New York on Friday, followed by a trip to Indiana on Saturday.
By the fourth quarter Monday, with the Bulls well ahead, Brooklyn fans took to cheering wildly for Wade, who had a nice crossover drive and 3-point play at one point.
"All the way across the board, (Wade) is great for our organization," Hoiberg said. "From his leadership, just who he is as a person, as a player. He's a great teammate and we're lucky to have him."