NEW ORLEANS — Ayo Dosunmu didn’t sugarcoat the Chicago Bulls’ season-opening 123-111 loss Wednesday night to the New Orleans Pelicans.
He couldn’t. No one inside the visitors’ locker room could.
“This is the worst-case scenario,” Dosunmu said.
Not exactly the postgame reaction Bulls fans want to hear after the first game, but against a shorthanded Pelicans team playing without Zion Williamson and Trey Murphy III, the Bulls assembled a sloppy offensive performance marred by 21 turnovers that led to 30 Pelicans points.
“It’s really hard to win a game like that,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said.
The turnover margin skewed virtually everything else the Bulls did on Wednesday, preventing them from stealing what would have been a feel-good road win.
“When you come in and you feel like you lose a game and you don’t get beat … that sounds weird, but that’s kind of how it felt,” Bulls guard Josh Giddey said. “Turnovers were obviously a big problem. We’ve got to bring those way back down. … I felt like we shot ourselves in the foot way too many times, but we still gave ourselves a chance to win.”
Here are five early impressions from the Bulls’ opener, starting with the turnovers.
The turnover problem
Because the Bulls are determined to play this season at an up-tempo pace offensively, turnovers will be a season-long statistic to watch. When the Bulls are at their best, they’ll push the pace, see the ball pop around to all five players, fill it up from behind the 3-point line and generate free throws.
On the flip side, the alternative will look like the Bulls did Wednesday.
Chicago committed five first-quarter turnovers and had nine by halftime. Facing only a one-point deficit at the break, the Bulls had yielded an 11-point differential in turnovers. The third quarter was worse. That’s when the Pelicans opened a double-digit lead by turning the Bulls’ miscues into makes. Chicago had seven turnovers in the quarter, leading to 10 Pelicans points. New Orleans outscored the Bulls 36-25 in the quarter.
In the end, the Pelicans enjoyed a 22-point differential in points off turnovers.
“Turning the ball over is the absolute worst thing we can compound that with, because we’re playing so fast,” Dosunmu said. “We’re running up and down, so now we’re turning the ball over and it’s just compounding. … We can’t do that. We’ve got to just take care of the ball.”
Donovan pointed to his team’s decision-making on drives.
“We had way too many one-legged, trying to jump in the air and realizing they don’t have anything at the rim and trying to find somebody late,” Donovan said. “And (the Pelicans) are quick and are very active with their hands.”
Defensive issues emerge immediately
On the game’s first possession, the Pelicans found former Bulls backup center Daniel Theis for a wide-open layup. The Bulls had a breakdown in coverage, which left Theis all alone in the paint. Only 16 seconds ticked off the game clock, and the Bulls’ biggest concern was on display.
Chicago’s turnovers made its defensive effort substantially more difficult as the Pelicans raced to 29 fast-break points and attempted 11 more shots. But there were other defensive issues the Bulls couldn’t button up.
New Orleans Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado drives to the basket against the Bulls Wednesday night. (Stephen Lew/ Imagn Images)
“For every team, there’s a formula that you have to do to win,” Donovan said. “We can’t turn the ball over. We cannot get dominated the way we did on loose balls. I didn’t think we came up with nearly enough. Can we get all of them? Probably not. But we need to get at least close to 50/50. And we’re going to have to play with some more physicality, because we are undersized in a way.”
Another issue: fighting through screens.
“We had some game-plan breakdown on screening actions,” Donovan said. “There were some things that we wanted to switch that we didn’t switch correctly and some things we didn’t want to switch. … Some of it was (the Pelicans) just putting their head down against anybody and going to the rim. At some point, you have to hold your ground.
“I think you saw the end result on defense on plays where the ball is being driven to the basket. The issue is at the point of the screen. We have got to be better at the point of the screen.”
Josh Giddey’s Bulls debut
When he was introduced as a Bulls starter, Giddey received hearty boos. Pelicans fans continued to boo Giddey every time he touched the ball.
Part of the reaction certainly stemmed from Giddey and the Oklahoma City Thunder tormenting the Pelicans the past two seasons. Giddey averaged 12.5 points, five rebounds and 3.3 assists in the Thunder’s four-game sweep of the Pelicans in the first round of last year’s playoffs. Two seasons ago, in the Play-in Tournament between the Thunder and Pelicans, Giddey erupted for 31 points, nine rebounds and 10 assists.
But it’s likely Pelicans fans also were letting their voices be heard following Giddey’s off-court turmoil last season, which linked him to an alleged relationship with an underage girl. After law enforcement and NBA investigations, Giddey did not face charges.
Many opposing fans have made it a point to deride Giddey during games. Giddey said he was slightly surprised at the reaction.
“Yes and no,” Giddey said. “I’m surprised it’s still going like the way it was. A few of my teammates asked me about it. They’ll talk to me about it, too. I just kind of explained some cities are different. Obviously, this one was pretty loud. And every touch, I definitely heard them. I can’t do a lot about it. I’m used to it now. I’ve just got to continue to play and do what I can out there.”
Giddey finished with 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting. He missed his lone 3-point attempt and went 4-of-7 from the free-throw line. Giddey added five rebounds and four three assists against three turnovers in 30 minutes. His shooting from the perimeter and free-throw line still needs work, but he made a few impressive plays recovering defensively to be a deterrent, as well as using his size on the defensive glass.
But managing a crowd’s hostile response, Giddey said, can be difficult.
“When you get booed every time you touch the ball, intros, every time,” he said. “You’re on the road, it’s not easy, and it can take its toll. It’s sad to say, but I’m kind of numb to it at this point. I just dealt with it all of last season, so I’ve been through it. … It doesn’t affect me anymore. You’ve just got to go out there and play and deal with it.”
Asked if he would ever embrace a villain’s role, Giddey didn’t seem interested.
“It’s a weird thing to be a villain about,” Giddey said. “It’s not like I’m trash talking and that’s why I’m getting booed. I’m getting booed for a whole different situation. I’m not going to embrace it and be a villain about it. It is what it is. It’s not a lot I can do about it. I’ve just got to go out there and play and let that stuff happen as it does.”
When he returned following a 33-month absence in the team’s final two exhibition games, Lonzo Ball downplayed his comeback by saying, “It’s only preseason.”
But as Ball said after the team’s morning shootaround, “This counts for the record.”
In his first regular-season game since Jan. 14, 2022, Ball logged 14 minutes and tallied five points, two rebounds and four assists. On his only field goal inside the arc, Ball saw an opening, attacked the basket and looked as if he would sky for a dunk. But at the last second, he appeared to ease up, laying the ball in softly.
“I was just seeing where Theis was,” Ball explained. “He was behind (Nikola Vučević), so I didn’t have to do too much. If he would have came over, then I probably would have tried to dunk it.”
On his best pass, Ball made eye contact with Zach LaVine on the wing and lobbed a pinpoint alley-oop — which LaVine finished with a highlight dunk.
Lonzo Ball: back like he never left. pic.twitter.com/Pl1Ye9HXcV
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) October 24, 2024
“It felt pretty similar to the preseason games, to be honest,” Ball said. “The same shots were there. The same minutes were there. It’s just about capitalizing on the time I’m out there.”
Ball is doing what he can to keep his comeback simple. He’s playing within himself, taking open shots when available and moving the ball to set up teammates for scores.
“I’m just happy to be on the court, man,” Ball said. “When coach calls my name, I’m just trying to give good minutes. That’s it.”
Zach LaVine watch
For all the attention surrounding Ball’s comeback, LaVine is enjoying one of his own.
Wednesday was LaVine’s first game since Jan. 18. He appeared in only 25 contests last season before undergoing season-ending surgery on his right foot. He’s healthy again, and in the second quarter LaVine looked determined to prove it.
LaVine scored 16 of his team-high 27 points in the second quarter, making his first five 3-point attempts. He finished 10-of-17 shooting and 5-of-8 on 3-pointers. LaVine’s eyesore on the stat sheet was his game-high seven turnovers, many coming via strips or him simply losing the ball.
“It happens sometimes,” LaVine said. “You’ve got to be aggressive. Obviously we’re not trying to turn the ball over, but I’ve got to do a better job of taking care of it.”
LaVine’s scoring, however, clearly remains. His 16-point explosion? No big deal.
“I got hot,” LaVine said. “I’ve done that plenty of times.”
For the Bulls, LaVine’s scoring will be a needed source of offense. And on some nights, he’ll be good enough to carry the Bulls to victory.
“He scores with the best of them,” Giddey said. “When he gets hot like that, it’s infectious for our team. Guys get energy, and we needed that spark. We were kind of slacking a little bit at the start of that second (quarter), and he came in and picked it up and was a real spark for us. When he’s playing like that, he attracts so much attention that it allows other guys to get going as well.”
(Top photo of Zach LaVine: Stephen Lew / Imagn Images)
