Fresh off a surprising 46-36 season and achieving the most wins as a team since 2015, the Chicago Bulls have given fans much to look forward to in the upcoming 2022-23 season. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait too long to know what to expect, as the official schedule release finally dropped today.
As Chicago learned all too well, the 82-game gauntlet that is the NBA regular season can certainly take its toll on teams. The Bulls emerged battered and broken, despite qualifying for the postseason for just the second time in the last seven years, and had nothing left to give in the first round of the NBA Playoffs against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Hopefully, things will be different this time as the team looks to capitalize on a healthy roster and an entire offseason of development from exciting young prospects like Patrick Williams, Ayo Dosunmu, and rookie Dalen Terry.
The Chicago Bulls took to their Twitter account to release the news and give fans our first look at the official 2022-23 schedule.
OUR SCHEDULE IS HERE. @ATT | #BullsNation pic.twitter.com/7tZwiX0c6O
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) August 17, 2022
With the way their 2022-23 NBA schedule is set up, I expect the Chicago Bulls to get off to a hot start to their season.
Although the Bulls open up to two road games — one of which coming against the top-seeded Eastern Conference team last year in Miami — I think there’s a lot to look forward to here.
For starters, the Bulls will have a pair of three-game homestands in the first half of the month from October 22 to October 26 (against Cleveland, Boston, and Indiana), and from November 7 to November 13 (Toronto, New Orleans, and Denver). Of those six teams, five of them are playoff-caliber teams where Chicago will benefit from being well-rested.
The first two weeks of games feature tough contests against the likes of the Heat, Celtics, Cavaliers, and 76ers, but things will only get easier from there. The Bulls went 14-8 in October and November last season, and with 7 games against the Thunder, Spurs, Magic, Jazz, Pacers, Wizards, and Hornets, the Bulls only need to tread water in the rest of their games if they can win out against the bottom-feeder teams.
The Bulls do close things out and enter December in the middle of a six-game road trip, but I actually don’t believe this is cause for concern. Getting those long trips out of the way early while the team is fresh instead of in the middle of the season may help not only prevent fatigue, but also serious injury to the main core.
With so much doubt cast on this team’s ability to beat other top teams, I’m actually quite pleased to see a tough (but not overwhelmingly so) start to the year. Last season, the Bulls were able to pile on plenty of empty victories early on only to see it all come crashing down later. The sooner they’re put to the test against the East’s top players, the better.