Zach's back, but Bulls overwhelmed by Cavs in home opener
In the modern NBA, no stat translates to winning quite like 3-point shooting. Defense is also helpful.
Once again, the Bulls don't seem to have enough of either. The home opener started badly and kept getting worse as the Cleveland Cavaliers rolled to an easy 128-96 victory in front of an early-departing crowd at the United Center.
The Bulls faced some tough circumstances playing their home opener on the second night of a back-to-back, while the Cavs relaxed in Chicago the past two days.
But that's just part of NBA life. Cleveland will be in the same boat for its home opener Sunday against Washington.
"It's too hard once you give a team that much rhythm," DeMar DeRozan said. "We made runs here and there, we just couldn't sustain it. Our effort has got to be a lot better defensively out the gate."
The good news is Zach LaVine seemed healthy in his 2022-23 debut, leading the Bulls with 23 points. DeRozan had an off night, scoring 13 points and taking out his frustration by getting ejected with 4:30 left.
But with LaVine jumping into the lineup and probably sitting out some to manage his recovery from offseason knee surgery, the Bulls will face a challenge in trying to create some consistent chemistry. During Saturday's game, there were a few times when they got confused on switches and allowed wide-open jumpers.
"I felt good," LaVine said. "Excited to go out there and help my team again, I just wish we played better. We all could have did better, especially on the home opener. Just happy to be back out there."
Newcomer Donovan Mitchell led the Cavs with 32 points, while all-star guard Darius Garland sat out with an eye laceration. Veteran Kevin Love went 5 of 6 from long range with 15 points. Second-year forward Evan Mobley hit 7 of 9 shots.
The final long-range tally was Cleveland 16-for-27 from 3-point land, while the Bulls were 7-for-29. That adds up to minus-27 points, a margin the Bulls can't expect to resolve by drawing more free throws.
"Give them credit, making 10 of 14 threes (in the first half) with nobody guarding you is pretty good," Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. "And I think in a lot of ways that deflated us. We've got to be able to fight and compete."
The effort picked up for a stretch in the third quarter when Donovan subbed in Javonte Green and Alex Caruso, but the Bulls kept hitting a wall when they got within 9 points.
The first time, Mitchell hit a shot, was fouled by Ayo Dosunmu and Nikola Vucevic was given a technical foul, giving the Cavs' new arrival a 4-point possession.
Green fired up the crowd with a steal and big dunk a few minutes later. Dosunmu got a steal and tried to be aggressive, but had his shot blocked by Caris LeVert. On the other end, Kevin Love drained a wide-open 3 to put the Cavs back up by 12.
"That's kind of who Javonte's been," Donovan said. "That group out there did a really good job. We were flying around, getting the loose basketballs. There was a fire and a spirit and a competitiveness to us. We've got to find that collectively a group from top to bottom."
Patrick Williams is piling up the quiet games. He finished with 6 points in 15 minutes on Saturday. But it's still just Game 3, so Donovan was hesitant to make any judgments.
"The way we competed in the third quarter, that's how we have to play," Donovan said. "We've got to be scrappy and we've got to fight a lot harder collectively as a group."
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