Bulls try to improve with no push from home crowd
The Bulls played four preseason contests, but now they'll experience playing in empty arenas for games that count.
For a young team, having no fans in the building should help when going on the road. But the Bulls will also miss the atmosphere at the United Center, where they spent decades ranked No. 1 or 2 in the league in average attendance.
Last season, with the rebuild sputtering, they ranked 11th with an average crowd of 18,804, so the Bulls have kind of eased into Wednesday's opening night crowd of zero.
"It's different for sure, but I think when you're in a game you just lock in on the game plan and things like that," rookie Patrick Williams said at Wednesday's shootaround. "So when I'm in a game, I really don't notice it that much. I usually only notice it when I'm on the bench and I get a chance to look around or when it's a time out and I get a chance to actually witness the silence."
It's a big change for the NBA, but all these players grew up with plenty of games in relatively empty gyms during AAU or summer league season.
"It's definitely going to be different," Zach LaVine said. "Even watching the games from (Tuesday night), you've got to bring your own energy. It was like that in preseason. But when it's for real, we really have to be together because there really isn't nobody else out there with you."
The bubble games at Disney World this summer were played in wide gyms designed to host giant travel tournaments. They curtained off the game courts to make them feel more intimate.
That's not going to happen at the United Center, which is one of the NBA's largest buildings and has a massive amount of air space. But the Bulls will just have to deal with it if they want to climb out of the NBA's basement.
"At the beginning of the year, you have to think you're a playoff team and you're going to win or you already lost," LaVine said. "That's just my mentality."