CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- What we've learned through the first few weeks of the NBA season is that the Bulls, as currently constituted, can play with everybody. Actually beating everybody is a harder task, especially when the Bulls aren't fully locked in from tip to horn.
The Bulls fell behind by 19 points in Boston on Monday before rallying for a big win. But Boston is having its own issues at the moment - there was even a players-only meeting to rally the troops in the wake of that Celtic collapse.
The Bulls fell behind by 18 points in Philadelphia on Wednesday, and while they did rally to tie, they never went ahead. Philly does not have Boston's current issues. True, there are some players out for health reasons, and the Ben Simmons saga continues in the background, but the Sixers generally know who they are and how to play together.
They also have Joel Embiid, who only had 18 points on Wednesday, but held Nikola Vucevic to just 4 and sealed the Bulls' fate with a beautiful block on DeMar DeRozan's drive with less than 10 seconds to go. Billy Donovan has said for two years that the Bulls will have problems with size, and there are few who pose a size problem quite like the 7'0", 280-pound Embiid.
DeRozan has been eye-opening so far this year - three straight 30-plus point games, including 37 against Philly on Wednesday. Zach Lavine is pushing through the pain of an off-hand thumb injury, and said he expects to have to deal with it for awhile. What the Bulls need on offense is more from the rest of the cast, especially Vucevic.
Defensively, they may just need time, or at least that's what DeRozan thinks - he attributed the slow starts on D to "growing pains". Playing Philly back-to-back will give the Bulls a chance to see how much growth - and how much pain - they still need to experience.
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