At 3 PM Eastern Time, the defending champions, the Bulls and the Rockets, played the first game of the regular season this season, marking the beginning of the new season.
The Rockets introduced Divac, enhancing their depth in the paint, but at the start of the new season, Olajuwon's decline was evident.
Throughout the game, Olajuwon scored only 19 points and 8 rebounds with 8 out of 18 attempts, while Drexler's decline was even more pronounced, scoring only 10 points with 4 assists on 11 attempts with 3 successful, plus 4 out of 4 free throws.
However, Divac, thought to "enhance depth," delivered an All-Star performance, scoring 22 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists with 9 out of 16 attempts and 4 out of 5 free throws, helping the Rockets hold on for a while.
But by the third quarter, the Rockets were overwhelmed by the Bulls, whose two top 50 superstars performed poorly against two of the three top 50 superstars on the opposite side, who performed excellently.
