‘Three Alphas’ lead Bulls to season-opening victory

Sharpshooting big man Nikola Mirotic possibly drove to the hoop more Thursday than he did all last season, and bullied Boston’s bigs every time.

Dwyane Wade’s 14th season opener is also his first in a uniform other than the Miami Heat, but the veteran guard said he was more excited than nervous for his Bulls’ regular-season debut Thursday night against the Celtics.

When told about his wife’s tweet after the game, Wade started to chuckle. If I was a guy who came in and had a t-shirt, always talking about my accomplishments, guys would get exhausted of that.

One game will not solve those questions, but Thursday night’s opener against the Boston Celtics offered some surprising initial answers. Wade made his presence known throughout the game, going 7-for-18 from the field and hitting the biggest shot of the night, a 3-pointer with 26.3 seconds left, to give the Bulls a five-point lead they would not relinquish. Tyler Zeller was given some extra minutes – Stevens said he matched up well against Robin Lopez – and he finished with six points, five rebounds and a pair of blocks. Next, Chicago takes on the Pacers on Saturday at home.

“I wanna apologize to my young fans on my gesture at the end of last nights game”, Wade tweeted.

The last time Wade made four 3-pointers in a game was in January 2013.

While Kevin Durant made headlines in the 2016 National Basketball Association offseason for his move to Golden State, Dwyane Wade had his own interesting summer.

Al Horford battled foul trouble but still managed to contribute 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists. The Bulls jumped out to a 10 point lead after the first quarter but Boston battled their way back throughout this one making it a close affair in the fourth. Boston coach Brad Stevens said Hunter could be a good fit with the Bulls, who could use an extra threat from the 3-point arc. The rookie received crunch-time minutes in a small lineup that nearly wiped out all of a late 10-point deficit, but also picked the wrong time for a rookie blunder. However, he couldn’t get a clean look at the basket, nor could he get a pass off to one of his teammates, so he came down with the ball and was called for traveling. Chicago’s size and physicality proved to be a differentiator from the start; by halftime, Boston head coach Brad Stevens chose to switch his starting lineup to combat all of the opposition’s extra opportunities.

“For some guys who can’t shoot, I think we did pretty well tonight”, Butler finally said after the game. “And I tried to coach him like I would coach anybody else”.

The story of the night though was the Bulls’ perimeter shooting. “We only had 11 turnovers, so it shows that (rebounding) is the No. 1 thing that we need to get better at”.