At least six members of the Chicago Bulls have scored in double figures in each game this season, keying the club’s first 3-0 start since 2021-22.
But the Bulls have proved equally relentless on defensive, another important attribute to the run.
“We keep playing at this pace, have the fresh bodies going in and out, I think we can wear teams down,” Chicago’s Kevin Huerter said. “(Coach Billy Donovan has) talked about our identity in the preseason to us, and everyone in the room believed that we not only had depth but believed in that depth.”
On Wednesday night, the Bulls will aim to keep rolling against the visiting Sacramento Kings, who feature the top two scorers from the most recent Chicago team to open 3-0.
DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine nearly helped the Kings hand the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder their first loss of the season on Tuesday.
LaVine scored a team-high 23 points vs. the Thunder, but Sacramento struggled to keep scoring down the stretch. Trailing 97-90 midway through the fourth quarter, Oklahoma City closed the game on a 17-4 run.
DeRozan contributed 19 points and Domantas Sabonis collected 10 points and 18 rebounds.
“We probably should be 4-0, but we’re not ready to be 4-0,” said Kings coach Doug Christie, whose team fell to 1-3. “And we’ve got to look in the mirror on that. Because 4-0 means all that little stuff … it gets handled when it’s winning time.
“That’s on me, too. The players, like I tell them, ‘It’s never your fault.’ I’m always taking the bullet. So I will stand on that and always be in the way to protect them. We just have to figure out how to close now. There’s a process to what we do, and I think that we’ve got to continue to stay consistent to what gets us to a place and not think we have to do something extra or get outside of it.”
Several of Chicago’s usual suspects guided the team to Monday’s 128-123 home win against Atlanta. Ayo Dosunmu contributed a team-best 21 points to pace eight Bulls in double figures.
Josh Giddey (18 points, 13 rebounds) and Nikola Vucevic (17 points, 17 rebounds) both notched double-doubles, while the latter fell one assist shy of a triple-double.
“I do think the group likes each other, and I think they are competitive guys,” Donovan said. “Like any player at this level, they certainly want to prove themselves. Sometimes different situations create different opportunities for guys, but I sense there’s a level that these guys feel like maybe they really need to step up and prove themselves, and we really need to keep that because we have to do that. That’s important.”
Donovan is further encouraged as Coby White (right calf strain) and Zach Collins (left wrist fracture) recover from injuries.
Sacramento is 6-4 in the past 10 meetings against Chicago, but the Bulls earned a split of the season series in 2024-25.
Vucevic has netted a double-double in five straight games against the Kings. The Bulls will try to win consecutive contests vs. Sacramento for the first time since a five-game tear spanning the 2014-15 and 2016-17 seasons.
