The talk back in Nashville earlier this month was very tough.
Promises of togetherness when the seas of the NBA season got rough, vows of playing with more physicality, all of it discussed daily in Camp Kumbaya by the Bulls players and personnel.
By the time the middle of the fourth quarter rolled around on Wednesday, however, the boos throughout the sold-out United Center spoke volumes.
Suddenly all that propaganda from the organization during the summer, training camp, and the preseason about a new hard attitude was erased with a simple slap in the mouth by the visiting Thunder in the regular-season opener.
Same product, same core, same softness.
Thanks to a dismal 12-for-42 (28.6%) shooting night from three-point range, as well as very little resistance thrown in front of the Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Bulls debut for the 2023-24 season was a whimper that ended in a 124-104 loss.
And it didn’t even feel that close.
To make matters worse, during the third-quarter meltdown, Bulls big man Nikola Vucevic had heated words with coach Billy Donovan about what was taking place on the court, specifically his lack usage in the offense.
“Just unhappy with the stuff we were doing,’’ Vucevic said. “I expressed it maybe a little more aggressive than I should have at that moment of the game. Heat of the moment, trying to help the team win. I didn’t like what was going on. We talked it out.
“It wasn’t so much my touches. More of stuff we were running that could have been better.’’
Donovan maintained a similar story.
“I talked to (Vucevic) about it,’’ Donovan said. “I’ve said it before, I think confrontation is good. He’s probably not wrong for feeling like that. Maybe I could have handled it better with him, and he could have handled it better with me. I don’t blame him. I think it’s healthy and it needs to happen.
“That would have never happened last year … the confrontation piece. If that’s going on in Game 1 that means certain people are stepping up and saying, ‘This has to be better.’ ‘’
Not all that happened in Game 1.
How about a team meeting after?
Donovan said he walked in the locker room to meet with the team, but players were in serious discussions about what took place in the embarrassing showing. He asked them if they wanted him to leave so they could have more time and they said yes.
“I mean guys want to win,’’ guard Zach LaVine said of the talk between players after the game. “You put up a game like this in Game 1 and you don’t have some conversations … guys are frustrated. It sucks to have to happen Game 1. It happened. We’ve got to go from there.’’
What Donovan could take solace in was that the Bulls (0-1) were even within sprinting distance of catching the Thunder after the first half.
A 24-minute showing that was very forgettable.
The new-look offense generated an increase in three-point shots, but the part of the equation that was still missing was the makes. Donovan’s chuck-and-duck tweak to the shot profile had the Bulls putting up 23 threes, but only hitting on six of them (26%).
Meanwhile, the Thunder were much more efficient with their long-range attack, hitting on 8-of-20 (40%).
On top of the shooting struggles, LaVine spent all but 10 minutes sitting on the bench with three fouls and just six points.
To get into the locker room down just 61-55 felt more like an escape than a deficit.
But any hope of a comeback was squashed midway through the third when Gilgeous-Alexander hit three of his 31 points on the night to put Oklahoma City up four, sparking a run the Bulls (0-1) had no answer for.