Who would have thought it was the Bulls who would have taken a 4-0 lead over the league

The Bulls won again, and the league came first.

DeMar DeRozan took control in the fourth quarter and he did something repeated many times in Toronto.

DeRozan scored 26 points against his old club, including 11 in the final stages, Zach Lavin 22 and the Chicago Bulls started the season with four straight wins for the first time since the 1996-97 season, beating the Toronto Raptors 111-108.

"DeMar is clearly doing a good job in ending the game," Bulls coach Billy Donovan said.

The Bulls survived Toronto's final challenge, with DeRozan scoring four of Chicago's final five points.

"Honestly, you live for those moments," DeRozan said. "I get up for those moments. I love them. ”

Lonzo Ball said the Bulls believe DeRozan can play well in a matched game.

"In the final moments of the game, he was our first choice and he hasn't let us down yet," Bauer said. "Tonight he put us on his back and finished the fourth quarter for us."

Charlotte's overtime loss to Boston left the Bulls as the only unbeaten team in the East.

"It's great, but we have more basketball games to do," DeRozan said. "We have to move on to the next game. We cannot treat this record as some sort of badge of honor. ”

Nikola Vucevic scored 17 points, Ball scored 15 points and the Bulls played Toronto for the fourth consecutive time. 5 from 9 on three-point range.

"They have some prolific shot makers, and they're shooting some," Toronto coach Nick Nes said.

Toronto's Fred VanVleet scored 15 points and set a career-high with 17 assists. Rookie Scotty Barnes scored 13 points.

Chicago led by 20 points in less than three minutes of the second half and 97-86 with 7:57 left in the fourth quarter, but Anunoby scored the final five points in Toronto's 9-0 game as the Raptors narrowed the score to 97-95 and 4-49.

DeRozan made a jump shot on two free throws by Alex Caruso and the Bulls hit back with a 6-0 spurt to take a 103-95 lead with 3 minutes and 27 seconds left.

Barnes completed a Bulls error with 15 seconds left in the game to narrow the score to 110-108. Vucevic missed two free throws, ending the Bulls' 20 consecutive free throw runs, but the second free throw gave the Bulls a three-point lead. VanVleet missed a potential equaliser shot on the whistle ball.

The Raptors hit a three-pointer in the second quarter, but Ball hit three as Chicago led Toronto 37-27 at halftime to make it 61-51.

LaVine scored 13 points in the third quarter as the Bulls led 92-80 to the final quarter.

Chicago shot 21-of-22 from the free throw line and DeRozan led on 10-of-10 shooting.

Bull: Troy Brown JR. Scored 11 points. ... In toronto's 2009 first-round draft, DeRozan played nine seasons with the Raptors and remains the team's leader in games (675), playing time (22,986) and points (13,296). He has spent the last three seasons in San Antonio.

Raptors: The Raptors scored more than 10 times in the first half, including five by VanVleet, and ended with the worst 21 turnovers of the season to score 27 points for Chicago. VanVleet had eight worst turnovers of his career.

next

Bulls: Home to New York on Thursday night.

Raptors: Home to Indiana on Wednesday night.