National Basketball Association

Chicago Bulls vs. Milwaukee Bucks: 5 Takeaways from Monday's Preseason Opener

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 6:30 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

Oct 3, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Rajon Rondo (9) passes the ball against Milwaukee Bucks guard Michael Carter-Williams (5) during the first half at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

Yes, folks. Chicago Bulls (preseason) basketball is back. The Bulls kicked off their seven-game preseason slate against the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night. Here’s five takeaways from the first showing of the new-look Bulls.

The Chicago Bulls played an organized basketball game (that didn’t count) against another NBA team on Monday night.

It’s crazy, right?

For the first time, the new-look Bulls took the United Center floor as a unit and hosted their neighbors to the north in the Central Division: the Milwaukee Bucks.

The upside is: The Bulls scored the first eight points of the game and 14 of the first 17 points of the night.

The downside is: They didn’t do much after that in a preseason-opening loss to the young, lengthy Bucks.

With that being said, here’s five takeaways from Monday night’s loss, starting with the best and worst pronunciation of Bucks wing Giannis Antetokounmpo’s name you’ll ever hear in your life.

1. Stacey King is never allowed to try and say “Giannis Antenetokoumpo” again

I mean, good lord.

What did Stacey even say here?

“Giannis Antetokookokoko”?

Look, Anteotokounmpo is really hard to say (and spell for that matter), but this might the worst pronunciation of Giannis’ name that anyone has ever heard.

As for Antetokounmpo in the actual game, he picked three first-quarter fouls (!), but still had a solid showing in his first preseason action with 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting.

Oct 3, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Dwyane Wade (3) dribbles the ball against the Milwaukee Bucks during the first half at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

2. Dwyane Wade is a Chicago Bull and Monday didn’t make any more real

“At guard … from Chicago … 6’4″ … Dwyane Wade!”

No, seriously. That actually happened on Monday night.

Now, before you flood the comments section with “He’s from Robbins, IL! Not Chicago!”, let’s be honest here: If you live in suburb that’s basically right next to Chicago, you’re from Chicago.

Regardless, it’s pretty cool (yet, really odd) to see Wade as a member of his “hometown team”. He was the first Bull announced in the starting lineup introductions, and Jimmy Butler was announced in the all-important last slot.

What’s even cooler: Wade hit two three-pointers in the first quarter of Monday’s game and hit another from 30+ feet that came after a whistle blew a play dead.

The Bulls might actually make some outside shots this season. Maybe.

Oct 3, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Rajon Rondo (9) dribbles the ball against the Milwaukee Bucks during the first half at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

3. The Bulls started hot … and then reality set in with the second unit

The Bulls scored the first eight points of the game, 14 of the first 17, and 16 of the first 21 points on Monday night against the Bucks.

Then, it was bad for most of the night.

(They did make it fun at the end, though!)

As expected, the Bulls started Monday’s game with the “Three Alphas” — Rajon Rondo, Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler — along with Taj Gibson and Robin Lopez. The first unit came out strong, but when things were handed over to the second unit, it didn’t go so well.

Case and point: The Bucks, one of the league’s worst rosters in terms of shooting and scoring, dropped 30 points in the second quarter.

Those kinds of things can’t happen.

The bench trio of Nikola Mirotic (1-7), Bobby Portis (2-8) and Doug McDermott (5-10) — three key guys for the Bulls this season — shot a combined 8-for-25 from the field against the Bucks.

Mirotic did the complete opposite of what he needed to in terms of gaining ground in the “open competition” for the power forward starting spot, Portis looked out of place at times, and so did McDermott.

McDermott came on late with some nice floaters on offense to help the Bulls come back from a 15-point deficit in the second half, but overall, this trio (plus the rest of the bench) didn’t look strong for most of Monday night.

Sep 26, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler (21) center Robin Lopez (8) guard Rajon Rondo (9) and guard Dwayne Wade (3) pose for a photo during Bulls media day at The Advocate Center. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

4. Robin Lopez is a good basketball player

Whoever wins the power forward starting spot is going to like playing with Robin Lopez this season.

Lopez isn’t a flashy player. He’s not going to play with the fire and emotion that Joakim Noah played with during his Chicago days, but he’s a guy that knows his role and that showed on Monday.

With about 5:18 left before halftime on Monday night, Lopez made a great play around the rim to help Jimmy Butler out on a drive by Jabari Parker. As Butler went to take a charge on Parker, he was knocked out of the play by Parker with no call, but Lopez rotated over to block Parker’s shot attempt.

Is it a game-changing play? At that point (and in the first preseason game), no … but those are the kinds of plays Lopez will make this season. He’s an intelligent player that knows where to be on the floor and is much better protecting the rim than, say … Pau Gasol.

Lopez actually took eight shot attempts on Monday night in 20 minutes of action, including a couple jumpers, and blocked three shots.

He’s not an All-Star, but he’s solid, and he showed that against the Bucks.

5. The starting PF spot is Taj Gibson’s (as of now) after Monday’s performance

Based off the performance from Taj Gibson, Bobby Portis and Nikola Mirotic on Monday night, the starting job next to Robin Lopez is Taj Gibson’s to lose.

There’s still plenty of practice time and six preseason games left, but Gibson looks like he’s going to be the choice and rightfully so. In 22 minutes on Monday, Gibson scored 11 points and pulled down 12 rebounds.

He did have four turnovers, so it wasn’t the perfect performance, but it was a noticeable one.

Gibson was his usual self on Monday night. He played hard, but under control, and pounded the glass for 12 rebounds (five on the offensive glass alone).

Four of the five starting lineup spots are locked in and ready to go for the regular season, and Gibson appears to have the early lead on Portis and Mirotic in the race.

More from Pippen Ain't Easy

This article originally appeared on

share

Get more from National Basketball Association Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

National Basketball Association