National Basketball Association

It's a first for Thibodeau; New coach able to thoroughly enjoy initial win as a Bull

Published Oct. 11, 2010 10:05 a.m. ET

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With less than three weeks to go before the start of the regular season, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau has tunnel vision on all the things he has to do to get his team ready by then.

But before the game against the Washington Wizards on Friday night at the United Center, he took a moment -- a brief moment -- to reflect on his first game at the UC as the Bulls coach.

''It's great,'' Thibodeau said. ''This was one of my favorite places coming in as an opposing coach. I think the atmosphere here and the history of the building are great. They have great fans. I'm looking forward to it.''

Thibodeau certainly enjoyed it more than the first two games for one simple reason -- the Bulls posted a comfortable 107-96 victory for their first win of the preseason.

''We're moving in the right direction,'' he said afterward. ''We're still not a 48-minute team and we're striving for that, but the rebounding was much better and the ball movement I thought was terrific. I thought we were making the extra pass all night long.''

Derrick Rose, in his first head-to-head matchup with Wizards rookie John Wall, had 18 points to lead a balanced Bulls attack and win the battle of the top-pick point guards. Wall finished with 11 points and six assists.

But Rose said he didn't get caught up in the matchup with Wall.

''No, I'm just trying to win,'' he said.

Kyle Korver came off the Bulls bench to contribute 17 points on 7-for-12 shooting in 20 minutes of play, and Joakim Noah finished with a double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds).

The Bulls (1-2) were 39-for-74 (52.7 percent) from the field and had 28 assists -- five by Rose.

''The offense that we're running, everybody's gonna touch the ball,'' Rose said. ''If not, you're gonna hear Thibs; he's gonna be yelling at you to swing the ball.

''It's an offense where there's a lot of motion, where I'm not always handling the ball, where I'm coming off staggered screens to open up the court.''

The other positive statistic was that the Bulls posted a 48-32 rebounding edge after being badly beaten on the boards in their first two outings. Rebounding was Thibodeau's major point of emphasis before the game.

''We've got to get in the fight,'' he said. ''We're small; we have to be a gang-rebounding team -- and right now when the ball's shot, we're leaking out and trying to get out on the break before we get the rebound, and we can't do that.''

They didn't do that Friday night. After talking about it for a couple of days, Thibodeau got a chance to feature a big lineup with 6-11 Noah at power forward and 7-1 Omer Asik (nine points, 10 rebounds) at center on the court together for significant stretches against the Wizards (2-1).

The strategy is something the Bulls could continue to do to help offset the loss of Carlos Boozer for the first month of the season.

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