Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan likes to remind anyone who will listen how he’s a student of the game.
Very few would argue that.
DeRozan doesn’t just monitor what his own organization does with personnel decisions, but he does so with the entire league.
He also knows what matters, and the Bulls’ 115-98 preseason victory Sunday against the host Raptors mattered.
After two preseason games against the Western Conference, DeRozan and the Bulls finally got their first chance to exchange blows with a team from the East. And not just any team in the conference, but one the Bulls could find themselves battling with for playoff position all season long.
It was the kind of matchup DeRozan had been looking forward to since camp began two weeks ago.
‘‘You put me in a room with the best, it brings out the best in me,’’ DeRozan said recently. ‘‘That’s the approach that we have to take this whole season. This is the toughest the East has been since I’ve been in the league. That makes it exciting.
‘‘You want to compete at the highest level against the best. There are no nights off.’’
It’s an attitude DeRozan would like to see his teammates take on with the regular season tipping off next week — and one that was absent too often last season.
Not unlike the Bulls, the success the Raptors had last season was a bit surprising. Both teams were battling for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs in the last month, and both finished on the outside looking in.
The Raptors finished as the fifth seed and the Bulls as the sixth in the East, and each was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
The Bulls’ expectations this season call for them being better than one-and-done, which means they have to take care of similar teams.
But the Raptors’ length and physicality gave the Bulls fits in the first half. Not only did they have a 10-point lead at the half, but they had forced the Bulls into 16 turnovers.
Bulls coach Billy Donovan made a small tweak to start the third quarter, putting Javonte Green on the court after giving the nod to Derrick Jones Jr. to start the game. Jones had been performing well throughout camp, and Donovan had said Friday that he wanted to reward him.
But with Green on the court, the momentum changed. The Bulls went on a 7-0 run to start the second half and grabbed the lead on a three-pointer by Zach LaVine with 7:33 left in the third.
The Bulls outscored the Raptors 30-23 in the third, then watched the reserves close out the game with a 38-18 fourth quarter.
DeRozan led the Bulls with 21 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, and Green added 17 points on 7-for-8 shooting.
What became apparent Sunday is that forward Patrick Williams’ demotion to the second unit might have staying power.
Donovan downplayed that scenario Friday, insisting a final decision on what role Williams would play was still undecided. But it was another shaky night for Williams, who shot 1-for-8 from the field against the Raptors.
NOTE: Veteran guard Goran Dragic was given the game off. Coach Billy Donovan earlier had said he wanted to keep the 36-year-old rested going into the regular season.
