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Bulls offense effective, even without Derrick Rose

The Bulls will be without Derrick Rose to start the season, but their offense got off to a good start even without the former MVP.

David Banks-US PRESSWIRE - Presswire

Forced to play without Derrick Rose while he recovers from a torn ACL, the Chicago Bulls have a lot of question marks on offense heading into this season. They may have answered one of them, however, in their preseason opener on Tuesday – can they score points without Rose?

Chicago scored 92 points against the Memphis Grizzlies, an effort Aggrey Sam of CSN Chicago said "illustrated that the Bulls are indeed capable of manufacturing points without one of the league's elite scorers and playmakers." While Chicago often played a slow pace in the past and relied on Rose to set up others as well as score, they went uptempo at times against Memphis.

The Bulls also utilized a well rounded attack with five players scoring in double-figures. Luol Deng led the team in points, just as he will likely be asked to do with Rose out, but Chicago also got contributions from Richard Hamilton and newcomer Nate Robinson. Hamilton struggled last year in his first season with the Bulls, but if he's able to regain some of his old form, it would go a long way to replacing Rose's production. Robinson has always been known as a scorer off the bench, a role Chicago hopes he can continue to fill this season.

Kirk Hinrich said the Bulls are playing unselfish and making the right plays. Now, they will just have to prove they can continue to do that into the regular season.