Bulls reserves struggle in season-opening loss at Toronto
Here's the first lesson from the Bulls' rebuild:
When a team is already expected to be one of the worst in the league, losing three starters and an experienced backup doesn't bode well.
The Bulls' starters were competitive against Toronto in Thursday's regular-season opener, but the reserves struggled badly. After falling behind by 27 points in the second quarter, the Bulls came back to make the score respectable, but lost 117-100 at the Air Canada Centre.
"Obviously something we've talked about a lot is playing through adversity, playing through the tough times," coach Fred Hoiberg told reporters after the game. "I was proud of the guys in the second half for coming back."
Here's another rundown of who's missing: Zach LaVine is recovering from a torn ACL in his left knee and may play in December if all goes well. Kris Dunn is out with a dislocated left index finger and might be back in a week or two. Nikola Mirotic is expected to miss 4-6 week after being injured by a punch thrown in practice by teammate Bobby Portis, and Portis is suspended eight games for unloading that punch.
Trailing 25-23 after one quarter, the Bulls opened the second with an all-reserve lineup of Ryan Arcidiacono, David Nwaba, Denzel Valentine, Quincy Pondexter and Cristiano Felicio. Pondexter hadn't played for two seasons due to knee injuries.
To say this group was lost and overwhelmed would be an understatement. Toronto raced to a 15-0 run in the first 2½ minutes and eventually pushed the lead out of reach.
The Portis-Mirotic fiasco happened just two days before the season opener, so there wasn't much time to sort out ideal rotations.
Rookie Lauri Markkanen started at power forward and had a nice NBA debut, with 17 points and 8 rebounds. Hoiberg quickly turned to point guard Kay Felder, picked up off waivers this week, when the Raptors picked on the inexperienced Arcidiacono.
"I thought Felder gave us a big lift off the bench with his pace, his speed," Hoiberg said. "He sure looks like a guy that's going to be able to get downhill, get into the paint and if we run with him, it should be fun for our guys.
"Obviously, we didn't have a lot of time to prepare and figure out what we were going to do with lineups because we hadn't played any of those lineups the entire time in preseason. So we'll reevaluate it, go back and obviously watch the film and correct some things."
Center Robin Lopez led the Bulls with 18 points, but had a tough time with Toronto counterpart Jonas Valanciunas, who finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds. Justin Holiday added 15 points for the Bulls and Valentine scored 12.
Markkanen, a 7-footer from Finland, hit 5 of 12 shots from the field and showed some nice athleticism for a player his size.
"I think that's what we like most about him is he has no fear out there," Hoiberg said. "He can miss two or three in a row, and if he has any daylight at all, he's going to rise up and shoot the ball with confidence. That's what you have to have as a shooter.
"For a young player, a 21-year-old kid, that goes out and has that; you're born with it, you can't teach that type of confidence. So to have that for the first game of his career after missing a few (shots) early is a great sign."
Twitter: @McGrawDHBulls