Preseason Game 1 against Milwaukee

Well the Bulls lost, but it's only preseason. Besides, the only reason why they lost was because Scott Skiles reached to the bottom of the bench in the final 4:29. Despite the loss, the Bulls showed some major bright spots in the game.

Tyrus Thomas got the starting power forward position, and rookie Thomas Gardner replaced Ben Gordon, who did not even play, in the starting line-up. Ben Wallace scored the first two points for Bulls. Wallace finished the quarter with 6 points, 2 of which came from a dunk. Noah came in as Wallace's replacement and within 51 seconds, Noah had his first dunk which was then followed by a block on Milwaukee center Andrew Bogut. Passing in the first quarter was very solid for the Bulls. 7 of the 9 first quarter field goals came off of assists. Nocioni seemed healthy during his time of play. He scored 5 first quarter points from off the bench, including a 3-pointer.

The bench did a pretty good job of staying with Milwaukee in the 2nd quarter. Chris Duhon shot a pair of 3-pointers, and rookie JamesOn Curry even got into the mix by knocking down his first 3-pointer. Chicago trailed at the end of the half, 47-46.

In the start of the 3rd quarter, Chicago wasted no time to score 7 unanswered points. Thomas's offense began to finally shine a little. 6 of his 8 points came in the 3rd quarter. Luol Deng ended his playing time in the third quarter. He finished the game with 10 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists in about 19 minutes of play.

Andres Nocioni, finished with a team high 13 points, and rookie Aaron Gray, who finished with 10 points and 6 rebounds, carried the offensive load for Bulls in the fourth quarter. In the final 4:29, the Milwaukee Bucks went on a 12-3 run and capped off the game with a 93-88 victory over Chicago.

Milwaukee rookie forward Yi Jialian had a sub-par performance, only finishing with 3 points and fouling out in 15 minutes of play. In comparison, Chicago rookie Joakim Noah finished with 6 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 block.

Chicago shot a disappointing 60% from the charity stripe. So obviously they are picking up where they left off last year in that area. Rookie Joseph Blair shot 1 for 6 from the free throw line.

Other Bulls players who did not play due to injury were Thabo Sefolosha, Joe Smith, and Adrian Griffin.

All in all, the Bulls had a decent game with many flashes of goodness. With Joseph Cage already being waived by the Bulls, the competition continues for the final spots on the roster. The next preseason game is Friday, October 12, against the Dallas Mavericks in Chicago.

Box Score of the Game

Video Recap of the Game