Joakim Noah was relaxed, cool, talking about his new teammate. Pau Gasol is another skyscraping big man, another wonderful passer, the newest Chicago Bull, and he’s keen.

“He’s very eager,” said Noah, who was typically sanguine. “He was watching film yesterday, he was watching Toronto against Philadelphia on the plane.”

Wait, the Sixers game? The Sixers were down 45-10 in the second quarter in Dallas Thursday night. The Sixers are a high school team with a charter jet and barrels full of despair. What can you learn from watching that? Did you ask him?

“I did, actually,” said Noah. “And he said, just trying to learn the tendencies. It showed great commitment on his part. I wouldn’t watch that s---.”

<bullet>On mobile or tablet? Click here to watch Lowry knock down a fan’s ice cream in the stands.

He wasn’t taking a shot at the Raptors, of course. But USA Today’s Sagarin rankings had Toronto’s schedule as the 27th-hardest in the NBA after Wednesday’s games. Chicago? Chicago was a different sort of team, in every way.

“That’s what we’ve got to get up to,” said Kyle Lowry, after a 100-93 loss to the Bulls. “That physicality, that type of defensive intensity, that type of offence that they can go to a couple guys, and different guys, and they can take over the game at different points.”

You prove something every night, but Thursday night was a test. It was the first time the Raptors had a regular season game on national TV in the United States since 2002, in a game where Hakeem Olajuwon was a Raptor, and Patrick Ewing played for Orlando. As someone who was there put it, “oh, it was sad. They were blocking their own shots.”

This was a big stage, and the best team Toronto has faced. Before it started, Masai Ujiri looked out at the court and wondered what would happen, what he would learn. Tim Leiweke bounded around like a great puppy, hugging people and laughing. Amir Johnson bounded out of a room saying “Big game, TNT baby, TNT.” It’s a small thing, a Thursday night game, in the grand scheme of the league. For some teams, it’s routine. Not here.

And there were no evident nerves, not really. There wasn’t any stage fright. DeMar DeRozan forced some shots, and Greivis Vasquez tried to dunk on the six-foot-10 Nikola Mirotic, but at least those were aspirational mistakes. The officiating let some heavy contact go, but that’s the game. That’s one of the central challenges of Chicago — you have to match their will.

“It’s a Chicago team with the toughness and physicality that you’ve got to defeat,” said Raptors coach Dwane Casey, beforehand. “They added a cerebral winner in Pau Gasol, who’s won championships before. But they’re a team that we compete well against as long as we meet their level of intensity and physicality on both ends of the floor. Everybody talks about defence, but against this team, you’ve got to be physical on offence, and bust through their grabbing and holding and that type of thing.”

Afterwards, he lamented that the Raptors couldn’t manage that, and that’s OK; that’s something that can be fixed. It was a structural gaps that taught a bigger lesson. It didn’t take long to imagine a playoff series, the relentless exploitation and papering over of weaknesses, the ruthless hammering of your strengths.

And the Raptors have weaknesses. Toronto tried to take away three-pointers, and did, but Pau Gasol chewed them up inside with his crane-like offensive game. DeRozan was contained by the human handcuff that is Jimmy Butler. Kyle Lowry matched Derrick Rose, but Rose is still rusty, and suffered hamstring cramps late besides, the poor guy.

Mostly, look back at Lowry’s answer: That was a road map. Chicago has more talent, and more big talent, too. Amir Johnson got beaten up, and Jonas Valanciunas still doesn’t seem to have Casey’s full trust, and poor Patrick Patterson got killed.

In the post-season, that’s a potentially significant flaw. If you were going to upgrade one position with a star, it would be with a Marc Gasol type, a thundering beast in the paint. But like the playoffs, any big moves are still purely theoretical, and a long ways away.

Which is OK. This was game nine. This was a measuring stick, and now they know. This team is still built to rely on Terrence Ross, who slips in and out of phase. It still relies on the ebb and flow of Valanciunas, who showed up to play early, and was benched late. It’s not a powerhouse yet.

“We found out that we really ain’t as good, but none of us have big heads in here, so all of us strive to get better every game, regardless of whether we win or lose,” said James Johnson, who was a Swiss Army knife off the bench again.

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The Bulls came in consumed with their own problems, their own dramas. Rose, back after two years in the injury void, said this week he was more worried about his post-playing health than anything else, and the firestorm was immediate and predictable.

“He’s going to be special again,” said Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, before the hamstring injury. “Just be patient.” Noah, defending Rose after the game, added “everybody needs to chill the f--- out.”

Patience is a good idea for everybody. The Raptors were never going to win 60 games, and this is Toronto, remember. There’s no need to get greedy, or profane. Not yet.