Bulls blown off court from start to finish in preseason loss to Rockets
Nine months in the pasture didn't do much for the Bulls' basketball skills.
They took the court Friday for the first time since March 10 for their preseason opener at an empty United Center and basically had the doors blown off by Houston 125-104.
The final score doesn't even tell the story. The Bulls fell behind 14-2 and 22-7. They trailed by 29 early in the third quarter and by as many as 32.
New coach Billy Donovan pointed out they had just four full-contract practices to prepare and the coaching staff had the players in a basic defense with no adjustments. All of this went to show the Bulls' baseline is pretty low.
"I think this was really good for us because we got our butt kicked in a lot of ways, which was good," Donovan said after the game. "But I think it also gives us a point of reference from the standpoint of things we've got to focus on and where we've got to get better."
Coby White led the Bulls with 15 points, to go with 6 assists. Lauri Markkanen scored 13 and Zach LaVine added 12. Tomas Satoransky had a nice performance off the bench, finishing with 11 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists.
"If I had to give it a 1-10 (rating), I'd give it a 3 or 4," White said. "I struggled a little bit, but haven't hooped in nine months. I feel like I could have played a lot better. That nine-month layoff was tough.
The Rockets knocked down 24 of 52 shots from 3-point range, so they haven't changed much even with coach Mike D'Antoni moving on.
The Rockets didn't have late arrival James Harden, but John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins - two newcomers who didn't play at all last season due to major injuries - were ready to roll.
From the opening tip, Coby White and Wendell Carter Jr. seemed to be in over their heads trying to defend Wall and Cousins. Wall blew past White for an easy lay-in on the first possession, then pitched it out for a Cousins 3-pointer on the second.
"The thing that I thought where we've really got to improve upon is I thought there were way too many drives to the basket uncontested," Donovan said. "I thought they had a lot of paint points. We didn't provide enough help, we didn't shrink the floor enough.
"Even the first possession, John Wall just crossed over and went right downhill and took a layup, there was no help."
There really weren't any bright spots on a night when the Bulls were never competitive.
The closest thing was the NBA debut of 19-year-old Patrick Williams, who looked smooth, confident and comfortable during most of his 25 minutes on the floor. He finished with 12 points and 3 rebounds, hitting 5 of 9 shots.
"I'm definitely not used to it yet, that's for sure. It was definitely fast," Williams said. "Now we've got film we can watch and things that we need too get better at. It was definitely helpful for all of us."
This was the Bulls' first game at an empty United Center. There were gray tarps covering the 100-level seats, fake crowd noise and two cars parked behind one of the baskets.
"The situation in Orlando was a little bit different because we were playing in smaller venues (at Disney World)," Donovan said. "We were not in real big arenas like we're going to be playing in. I think they're doing as good a job as they can. It's probably going to be a little bit of trial and error. I think one of the things the NBA talked about was wanting some feedback on the environment."
Twitter: @McGrawDHBulls