In the nine months between regular-season games for the Chicago Bulls, reasons for optimism started to build about the direction of the organization after years of a stagnant rebuild. They overhauled their front office to become more modern and brought in a new coaching staff to improve the schemes.

Ultimately, however, the roster remained nearly identical to last season with the same core of players that won 22 games in back-to-back seasons. And once the 2020-21 regular season kicked off Wednesday at the empty United Center — with a 124-104 drubbing by the Atlanta Hawks that wasn’t even as close as the final score indicated — all that positive momentum came crashing back to reality.

“We just didn’t come to play as a team,” center Wendell Carter Jr. said. “I wouldn’t necessarily call it a wakeup call. It’s reality, we gotta come and play and we didn’t come to play on both ends. Lot of us got inside of our own heads, including myself, worrying about the stuff that happened instead of worrying about living in the moment.”

If the Hawks are considered to be one of the favorites to grab one of the Eastern Conference playoff spots, then perhapsthe opener put on display the massive gulf the Bulls still have to overcome. It’s only one game in the 72-game shortened season, but ever since the Bulls got back on the floor they have done little to inspire the optimism they accrued during their hiatus.

1. It was a worrisome performance on defense.: Perimeter defense was always going to be a struggle for the Bulls after they let their best defender, Kris Dunn, sign with the Hawks during the offseason, but Wednesday’s outing was even more worrisome.

The Bulls gave up 42 points in the first quarter — the most points they’ve allowed during a season-opening quarter in franchise history. They followed that up by giving up 41 points in the second quarter. By halftime, the Hawks already had scored 83 points and were shooting over 65%. Hawks guard Trae Young finished the game with 37 points on 12 field goal attempts in 26 minutes.

It was an overall abysmal defensive effort by the Bulls.

“It was bad altogether,” guard Zach LaVine said. “I think in the beginning it was competitive, but then it just got unleashed … I guess you could say, wakeup call, you got punched, slapped in the face, whatever it is. But we just got to take it in stride. You can’t let it determine your whole season; it’s the first game.”

LaVine was tasked with guarding Young to start the game — a challenge he wants to embrace this season of guarding the other team’s best wing player. But the results were not pretty. LaVine spent the night in foul trouble (he had five by the third quarter) while Young got his points with ease. LaVine, who competes as an on-ball defender, has been working hard to improve defensively, but this end of the floor can still be a struggle for him.

The Bulls defense was so bad Wednesday, Wendell Carter Jr. said he apologized to his teammates for his effort in the locker room after the loss.

With the team shorthanded (more on that later) and the Bulls struggling to stop, well, anyone, coach Billy Donovan even turned to two-way player Adam Mokoka as early as the second quarter to try and get a spark on defense.

It’s only the first game of the season, and the Bulls were always facing an uphill battle to be even average defensively, but the kind of defensive effort they showed Wednesday can torpedo a season quickly.

“We have to help each other,” Donovan said. “We can’t just be like, ‘OK, I got my guy. I’m going to stay glued over here to my guy.’ We have to get guys to understand that when somebody is guarding the ball, the more we have four people in position to help and rotate, that makes their job that much harder. We’re going to have to play defense like that. I would say for our team, we’re not this fast, explosive foot speed team.”

“Part of the reason I played Adam is because the guy can really guard with his feet and he can handle guys one on one at times. I thought we didn’t have really good built-in help where it needed to be and then our guys on the ball got beat too easily. Therefore, you look at the number of shots they took in the paint, it was drastically too high. That’s going to require the guys to make a lot of multiple efforts. I think we’re willing to do that. I just don’t think we did it particularly well today.”

2. Coby White struggled in his first game leading the offense.: It was not a good opening-night performance for Coby White.

Yes, White had a bad shooting night — 2 of 11 from the floor (1 of 7 from 3-point range) with nine points — but his first night leading the Bulls offense was mostly erratic. He struggled trying to get the Bulls into their offensive sets and made a few costly turnovers in the first half.

“The shots are the shots, I don’t care about the shots,” White said. “Shots are going to fall. I already know I can put the ball in the basket; it’s getting us in the offense more and being more of a leader. Tonight there were times we hit adversity and I kind of stopped being vocal and I kind of stopped being that leader.

“I’ve got to fight through and I’ve got to keep playing because these guys feed off me. They see my head down, they are going to put their head down, so I have to lead my team. That’s the thing that bothered me the most tonight. I felt like I did not lead the team well enough for us to have a chance to win on the offensive end.”

Playmaking and creating shots for others are not White’s natural tendencies on the floor. It’s clear from an up-and-down preseason and this opening game that as White learns to lead an NBA offense, there are going to be growing pains.

The Bulls did not add another veteran point guard during the offseason. But Donovan has acknowledged, however, that this will be a work in progress.

“Coby has to play well for us to play well,” Donovan said. “When I say play well, forget the shot making. Take that out of the equation. He has to play well in terms of leading and organizing and getting our guys in the right spot. … As I was trying to explain to him during the course of the game, we’re coming down the floor and guys don’t know necessarily what we’re in at that moment in time, even though we’re trying to play fast. I think that’s part of his learning curve.”

3. The Bulls were missing their veterans.: If there is a reason for slight optimism, it’s that the Bulls are still not at full strength, especially in their second unit.

Some of their most experienced veteran reserves — Garrett Temple, Thad Young, Tomas Satoransky and Denzel Valentine — did not play after missing extended time during the preseason.

Their presence could have helped stop the bleeding while the Hawks went on an extended run in the first half.

Young has not returned to practice after a staph infection in his leg kept him out of the preseason, while the trio of Temple, Satoransky and Valentine practiced just this week.

But after conversations with all three players leading up to the game, Donovan determined they were not ready after missing so much time.

“I just didn’t feel comfortable putting them out there knowing that they didn’t feel like they had quite had enough time to get their rhythm, their timing, their legs back and conditioning back,” he said.