Bulls HC Tiago Splitter's new team lost by 43 points and his old team won by 41 points. Is that bad? appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
On Wednesday evening, the Chicago Bulls kicked off their 2026-27 NBA season with an ugly 135-92 loss on the road to the Toronto Raptors . This game marked the head coaching debut of Tiago Splitter in Chicago, and he certainly didn't look to have had his team prepared for this one.
Splitter took over for the Bulls this offseason after spending most of last year as the Portland Trail Blazers' interim head coach following the arrest of Chauncey Billups. The Blazers ended up hiring Micah Nori as their new head coach, and they stormed out of the gates with a 124-83 win over the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night, at one point having led 17-0.
The fact that Splitter's new team lost by 40-plus while his old team won by such a margin certainly isn't a great look for the new head coach as he looks to help build something with a Chicago team that has been mired in NBA purgatory for the last several seasons.
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Of course, many expect that the Raptors will be among the best teams in the league this year, so losing to them on the road isn't necessarily a cause for shame, especially considering that the Bulls are still widely viewed as a rebuilding team. Still, it's safe to say that fans were hoping the team would at least look somewhat competitive in the matchup, which was not the case at all, as the Bulls found themselves down by 22 points at the end of the first quarter.
In any case, the Bulls will next hit the floor on Friday afternoon for a road game against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Related: Bulls on wrong side of franchise history in opening loss vs. Raptors
