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Chicago Bulls at Indiana Pacers: Takeaways

By Daniel Coughlin

Oct 6, 2016; Indianapolis, IN, USA; The Chicago Bulls players look on during the national anthem prior to their game against the Indiana Pacers at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 6, 2016; Indianapolis, IN, USA; The Chicago Bulls players look on during the national anthem prior to their game against the Indiana Pacers at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports /
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Oct 6, 2016; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Rajon Rondo (9) shoots the ball in front of Indiana Pacers guard Jeff Teague (1) during the first half at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 6, 2016; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Rajon Rondo (9) shoots the ball in front of Indiana Pacers guard Jeff Teague (1) during the first half at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports /

Offense

You wouldn’t really assume, based on the final score, but the Bulls were scoring at the mythical Hoiberg pace on Thursday. They dropped 33 points in the first quarter and then put up 34 in the second quarter. In all, they had a 67-point first half where a lot of things seemed to be going right.

Doug McDermott started 3-for-3, all from beyond the arc. One of his makes was from what we might refer to as Steph Curry Range. McDermott looks more physically fit at the beginning of this season and you have to wonder if improved conditioning is a factor. He certainly looked much quicker last night than he did at any point last year and he was doing a little better in transition on defense as well.

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Rondo, who did all of his scoring in the first half, was shooting 100 percent. Portis was hitting from the baseline. Robin Lopez was finding his way, shooting 50 percent with 11 points.

Transition basketball was great in the first half. The Bulls really got downhill in a hurry on a lot of possessions. They also got into their sets pretty quickly on a big chunk of their half-court sets.

There is still a lot of work to do, honestly. But this game isn’t going to serve a perfect barometer for what and where those changes need to come from.

The offense only had it whirring on about half of Chicago’s possessions. The other half devolved into a bit of a morass. There were points where they were playing the version of four-out that left Lopez dribbling back-to-basket while everyone else just stood around. We’ll have to see a lot more of this team in the next week or two before making any assumptions, but right now they clearly just took a few possessions off and failed to run the desired set altogether on others.

The concern level should be low at this point for Bulls fans. Mirotic standing around while Lopez tries to work out of the post may, or may not, be thing that happens all season. We don’t know how often Wade is going to steal the ball and feed Bobby Portis with an alley-oop in transition. Can Wade’s legs handle all the running in transition and off the ball for the entire season?

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