A Gift That Will Keep On Giving

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! If you're a Bulls fan, you definitely did. Opening the season in L.A. against the Lakers on national TV was a gift itself. The gift that will keep on giving throughout the season though became another stocking stuffer as the first of 66 games ended with an 88-87 victory and a shocked STAPLES Center.

The Bulls were cold for much of the second half, but got hot at just the right time in the fourth quarter, pulling to within one with 20.4 seconds left and setting up a sequence that will hopefully epitomize the things to come this season. Kobe Bryant was forced into a bad pass and Luol Deng came up with the ball. After two passes, Derrick Rose had it. He drove toward the hoop and even with Derek Fisher and Pau Gasol in his face, he still managed to put up a floater that went in. Rose would be the team's leading scorer with 22 points. Behind him was Deng, who blocked Bryant's shot at the very end with help from Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson, with 21. Carlos Boozer made seven of 13 shots to finish with 15.

Naturally, since this was the first game of the regular season, a few kinks still need to be worked out. Consistency is one. Rose didn't score in the first quarter and only attempted one shot. He eventually got hot, but it would be nice for him to get going sooner. I have little doubt that will change. Noah scored six of the Bulls' first 10 points, but that was it for him in the points column. I know he's a rebounder first (he led everyone with nine on the afternoon), but the fact that he went cold after that early stretch might be disappointing to folks who thought that could keep up (though that could have been a tad unrealistic).

Omer Asik appeared ready to play, but he was beat up a lot out there and looked lost at times. He also badly timed a lot of potential rebounds. He'll need to work on that if he wants to be thought of as a serious threat off the bench in his second year. Even more concerning is Kyle Korver. In just under 10 minutes, he missed all three of his shots and looked like he picked up right where he left off in last year's postseason: bricking attempts that he had no problems during the regular season. He better improve on that in a hurry or he'll be seeing as much time on the court as Brian Scalabrine and John Lucas. With one year left on his current contract, the Bulls might want to shop him if he gets back to what he was, but that's for another day.

Even if the Bulls had lost this game, it still would have been an encouraging step for them. They showed they can still compete with at least one of the elite teams in the league. I know they beat L.A. at the UC last year, but they squeaked out of the STAPLES Center this time. Defense was the name of the game as both teams had a great number of stops. As earlier indicated, defense is also what decided this contest. The Bulls should be very confident going forward in that if they can outlast the Lakers on the road, maybe they can do the same to the other teams in the league just like last year. Of course, everyone wants to know if they can beat Miami, but that will have to wait for now. In any case, if you like hard-nosed basketball, this was a game to watch.

No time to savor this though. Golden State comes up tomorrow night. The Warriors will look for their first win after running out of gas against the Clippers tonight. As we saw in L.A. though, the Bulls will and should be ready to play.