The Chicago Bulls picked up their first win since the All-Star break on Sunday night, beating the Toronto Raptors 118-95. The Raptors were shorthanded coming in with starters Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby all out.
The Bulls starting five looked different as well, but that was due to head coach Billy Donovan making changes to his lineup following the team’s lackluster effort out of the All-Star break. Veterans Tomas Satoransky and Thaddeus Young were inserted into the starting five for youngsters Coby White and Wendell Carter Jr. in a move that energized the team, at least for one night.
Satoransky played 25 minutes of good basketball, collecting 10 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds. Young had similar numbers in his 22 minutes on the court, finishing with 10 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds. They tied to lead the Bulls in assists, followed by White’s five.
Those assist numbers are telling and reason for optimism for Bulls fans. The starting five lacked a natural distributor before the change was made and Sato is exactly that. He’s a well-rounded guard overall that also brings size and length. The fit is strong alongside Zach LaVine, Lauri Markkanen and Patrick Williams. Add in Young, who is also a very well-rounded and smart player, and his passing ability and the Bulls starters suddenly have a really good balance of scoring and distributing.
A key part of the early success with the change has to be the buy-in from both White and Carter Jr. They both said all the right things but more importantly, played the right way to back their words up. WCJ was especially strong in just under 19 minutes with a 12 point 11 rebound double-double.
Donovan didn’t go out of his way to commit to this lineup or any others moving forward, but it’s more than likely we will be seeing some more of this rotation in the coming games. It worked against a beat-up Raptors team, and if used again, will look to prove that wasn’t a fluke against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night.
Nine Bulls scored in double figures, led by a career-high 23 from rookie Patrick Williams. He added six rebounds and four assists while not turning the ball over in the game. Meanwhile, the new bench unit combined to score 47 points behind White’s 13 and Carter Jr.s 12. Denzel Valentine and Otto Porter Jr. both added 11 off the bench.
It was a nice win for the Bulls and they’re hoping it can get them going a bit for the second half of the season playoff push. More performances like tonight will get them headed in the right direction.