The Chicago Bulls are enjoying their best start to the franchise since the 1996-97 season. To be more precise… from his days with Michael Jordan.
They improved to 4-0 Monday night with a 111-108 victory over the Toronto Raptors at the Scotiabank Arena, making Chicago the last unbeaten team in the Eastern Conference. After improving their free agency roster, the Bulls have already reaped the benefits of some of their biggest off-season additions.
Lonzo Pool He scored five three-pointers for 15 points and five assists. Alex Caruso He added eight points and stole four times from the bench, adding to the Bulls’ 41 leading races so far this season. And Demar DeRozan, who spent the first nine years of his career in Toronto, scored 11 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter, including some major baskets along the Bulls’ stretch for stability and a comeback.
Combine these offers with 22 points of Zach Lavigne The eruption is off to their best start in 25 years.
“Part of the reason I decided to come to Chicago was because everyone was so eager to succeed, wanting to win,” DeRozan said after Monday’s game. “Everyone had that chip, from the city to the organization to the players I spoke to.”
“That was everyone’s mentality, now it’s about winning. We are not in the development stage, we want to win now.”
The Bulls are winning now, but their upcoming schedule could provide a better indication of how competitive this team will be in the long run. After victories over the Pistons (twice), Pelicans and Raptors, their next six games – the Knicks, Jazz, Celtics, Sixers (twice) and Nets – should be an even tougher test.
“We have a long way to go,” DeRozan said. “We have a lot to clean up, to learn. It’s a long season, man. [El inicio de 4-0] It’s cool, but we have a lot of basketball ahead. We can’t consider this some kind of challenge. We have to understand that the next match will be more difficult.”
However, the Bulls started 4-0 four times in franchise history and Jordan was on the team.
The Bulls have not even crossed 0.500 at any point during a season since March 2017. LaVine has never been part of a four-game winning streak at any point during his NBA career (he won five games in a row with Team USA). during the Olympic Games).
The Bulls can be encouraged that they got such a quick start despite bringing in so many new players. Only three players, Lavigne, Kobe White And Patrick Williams, who started the season on last year’s roster, is still in this team, but the new players, led by DeRozan and Ball, have adapted well to LaVine.
“I think we have a lot of top players, we all want to win and we want to win together,” Paul said. “I think when you have a group of players on the same team with the same common goal and the same mindset, it’s easy for Chemistry to click. That’s what happens.”