In the home opener on Oct. 22, the Chicago Bulls and second-year head coach Billy Donovan are gearing up to take on the first Western Conference foe of the regular season in the New Orleans Pelicans. Donovan and the Bulls are set to take on the Pelicans at home at the United Center on the night of Oct. 22 in the first leg of back-to-back games heading into the weekend.
The Bulls take on the Pelicans on Oct. 22, and then the Detroit Pistons for the second time in four days on Oct. 23 to round out this set of back-to-back games. And the Bulls get both the Pelicans and Pistons at home at the United Center this weekend.
This is a huge opportunity for the Bulls to go through the first three games of the regular season undefeated. In the regular season opener on Oct. 20, the Bulls downed the Pistons on the road in the Motor City. But it doesn’t come as easy as some thought it would, myself included.
Chicago Bulls have a good opportunity to go 3-0 for the first time since the 2016-17 season
A young Pistons team held tough defensively with a Bulls team that struggled to get the offense off the ground out of the gates. The Bulls would down the Pistons on Oct. 22 by the final score of 94-88.
When the Bulls face the Pelicans, expect less of a defensive struggle than they had against the Pistons. The Bulls turned the ball over a lot and didn’t shoot the ball too well from beyond the arc. They also didn’t keep a very fast pace of play against the Pistons. Just going off the season opener alone, the Bulls played at the fifth slowest pace of any NBA team.
Expect the pace and offensive production to pick up for the Bulls in the next few games. Hopefully, the solid defensive play will remain for the Bulls after allowing less than 90 points in the season opener too.
With that in mind, here’s a look into three key Bulls players that could help this team stay undefeated through the back-to-back this weekend.