These improbable Chicago Bulls have likened themselves to greatness.
Not since the 1996-97 season, midway through the second 3-peat of Chicago’s Michael Jordan-led 1990s dynasty, has a Bulls team begun an NBA season 5-0. Not the Baby Bulls of the mid-2000s, not the best of Derrick Rose and friends in the 2010s, not Zach LaVine’s squads in the 2020s.
But after a 135-125 win over the New York Knicks on Friday, Chicago’s first in NBA Cup play, these Bulls have.
Emerging 23-year-old Josh Giddey had a signature performance, delivering a career-high 32 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists while shooting 12-of-21 from the field.
JOSH GIDDEY IS BLAZING 🔥
21 PTS
6 REB
4 AST
4 3P pic.twitter.com/WBAfjvpNPb— Bulls on CHSN (@CHSN_Bulls) November 1, 2025
Veteran center Nikola Vučević pitched in 26 points and four 3-pointers, while fifth-year guard Ayo Dosunmu poured in 22 points and nine assists. Six Bulls players scored in double figures, the fifth straight time that has happened this season.
The Bulls led the Knicks by 19 points at halftime. When the Knicks surged to trim it to a one-possession game, Chicago fought back with what it knows: running, cutting, connectivity and more running. After a Mikal Bridges 3 cut Chicago’s lead to four with four and a half minutes remaining, the Bulls went on an 8-0 run to put the game out of reach.
Now, a Bulls team that most expected to compete for a Play-In Tournament spot is in first place in the Eastern Cconference. They’ve done it behind Giddey’s improved shooting and leadership, and with Dosunmu’s penchant for heading downhill. They’ve done it because the 35-year-old Vučević isn’t playing as old as the preseason — or his Basketball Reference page — led most to believe. They’ve done it with a system that accentuates a group of players who had been considered fringe starters at best.
This egalitarian offense, put into effect across the roster, has left the Bulls as the lone undefeated team remaining in the East.
The Improbabulls.
This story will be updated.
