Dr. Skiles and Mr. Bulls

So, the Bulls followed up their dominating, 42-point win over the defending NBA champions with a clunker in Orlando. As effortlessly competent as they looked in Miami on Tuesday night, that’s how inept they were on Wednesday.

In Miami, the Bulls built a lead with strong defense, efficient offense and solid fundamentals all the way around. In Orlando, they fell behind by 15 early and essentially stayed there the rest of the game, occasionally showing flashes of their previous night brilliance to cut the lead to around 10, but then giving it right back again.

It seems that what we’ve learned from this experience is what we always knew: You can’t tell anything about an NBA team after two games. The season is too long, the adjustments too easy to make. Remember that the 2004-2005 Bulls that returned the franchise to the playoffs after a six-year absense started out on a nine-game losing streak.

That feat was accomplished thanks largely to the coaching of Scott Skiles, who was also responsible for the big win in the opener. This team is clearly well-coached: Not only did they play strong defense and fundamentals against Miami, but they also stayed calm with the lead and gradually built it even bigger to assure the outcome, whereas a poorly coached team tends to start celebrating too early, finds itself in a close game, and doesn’t have the mental strength to hang on.

When a team is as well-coached as this one, nights like Orlando tend to be a blip instead of the start of a trend. And in fairness, a lot of teams, even good one, struggle on the second night of back-to-back games. When the back end comes against a team so fresh it hasn’t even played a game yet, you can expect a struggle. I wouldn’t worry too much – overall, the predictions of a very satisfying season for the Bulls are still fair.