The Nikola Vucevic era of Chicago Bulls basketball began on Saturday night in San Antonio, but it unfortunately looked a lot like what we’ve seen against playoff competition in recent years. The Spurs jumped on the Bulls from the start and built a lead as large as 36 points in the third quarter before holding off a late surge to hand the visitors a 120-104 loss. There was even a 30-point deficit alert in the first half as the Spurs used an 18-0 second-quarter run to go up 31.
Vucevic put up a respectable stat line in his Bulls debut, going for 21 points (9-of-16 shooting), nine rebounds and four assists in 32 minutes.