Chicago Bulls: 3 takeaways from preseason opener loss to Rockets

A poor start to the preseason slate for the Chicago Bulls saw them fall short by a large 21-point margin at home on Dec. 11 to the Houston Rockets.

While we shouldn’t put a whole lot of stock in the result, the Chicago Bulls and newly hired head coach Billy Donovan did not get off to the start they wanted to on Dec. 11 in their preseason opener against the Houston Rockets. A largely new look Rockets team that was without superstar guard James Harden jumped all over the Bulls right from tip off.

It was the former Washington Wizards star point guard John Wall and former Sacramento Kings superstar big man DeMarcus Cousins that largely powered the Rockets to this win over the Bulls, by the final score of 125-104.

This was the first game that the Bulls played at the United Center since mid-March, when they beat the Cleveland Cavaliers to round out the regular season in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The Bulls will be back at the United Center to face the Rockets for a second time in this four-game preseason slate on Dec. 13.

Then the Bulls will hit the road to travel to face the Oklahoma City Thunder to round out this preseason slate for two games, on Dec. 17 and 19. And the Bulls tip off their regular season slate on Dec. 23 at home at the United Center against star point guard Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks.

Moreover, the Bulls 21-point preseason opener loss at home to the Rockets was not really what the fans wanted to see heading into the weekend. But this is still the preseason and hopefully the Bulls can bounce back strong in their second game against the Rockets to round out the weekend.

Here’s a deeper look into three takeaways from the Bulls convincing loss to the Rockets to tip off the preseason schedule on Dec. 11.