McGraw: Bulls meet low expectations in home-opener loss to Spurs
The Bulls aren't expecting many wins this season. Baby steps and sideshows are about the best fans can hope for.
Saturday's home opener, an 87-77 loss to San Antonio at the United Center, featured a couple of those.
Rookie Lauri Markkanen turned in another decent outing, with 13 points and 12 rebounds. He didn't shoot well, going 5-for-14 from the field, but the Bulls want him to keep launching with confidence.
"I've got a lot of things I can do better," Markkanen said after the game. "I'm getting more comfortable every game. Every second I'm on the court I feel more comfortable and know what to expect."
The sideshow aspect involved center Robin Lopez, who was wearing a self-decorated right sneaker with a "Simpsons"-inspired take on his "Sideshow Rob" nickname.
Wearing this shoe, Lopez drilled the first 3-point basket of his pro career in the third quarter. He had been 0-for-7 from long range during his previous 629 NBA games.
In fact, Lopez has already doubled his career-high for 3-point attempts in a season with 4 in the first two games. He's also the Bulls' leading scorer, averaging 17 points. That's well above the career-best 11.3 points per game he accomplished with New Orleans in 2012-13.
"I want to do whatever the team needs me to do," Lopez said. "It's against my nature a little, but I think I need to sharpen my instincts in that regard a little bit. If that's what the team needs me to do, I'll do it."
Lopez's twin brother Brook made three 3-pointers during his first eight NBA seasons, then erupted with 134 last season.
"(The 3-point shot) is something I've been working on," Robin said. "I would hate to just go out there and start pulling 3s without working on it. It's something I've got to get better at. I'd like to add it to my game."
The Bulls (0-2) will probably have a large number of games go like this. They were competitive well into the third quarter, but eventually they couldn't keep up or the opponent decided to kick it into another gear. The Spurs (2-0) were missing all-star Kawhi Leonard with a quad strain.
Power forward LaMarcus Aldridge led San Antonio with 28 points and 10 rebounds. Otherwise, the Spurs were balanced. Coach Gregg Popovich let former Illinois star and Gurnee native Brandon Paul, who is making his NBA debut this season, make a brief appearance in the first half.
"I was proud of our defensive mentality," Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said. "We talked about how important it was defending the 3-point line against this team. We held them to 1. Defending without fouling. I believe they shot 16 free throws, which is pretty good against that team. The thing that cost us was turnovers (20) and offensive rebounds (14)."
Hoiberg talked about the lineup challenges that came with losing power forwards Nikola Mirotic and Bobby Portis in Tuesday's unfortunate practice altercation. Portis talked before the game about his eight-game suspension and the punch that sent Mirotic to the hospital with significant injuries.
The Bulls' second unit, which was a disaster in Thursday's opening loss at Toronto, was much better this time, with point guard Kay Felder taking over the backup role from Ryan Arcidiacono.
Twitter: @McGrawDHBulls