Former Bull Alex Caruso speaks from the heart, then rips out hearts

Guard Alex Caruso said all the right things.

He always does.

The former Bull talked about his love for his old organization, how he gave “everything I had” and how he didn’t have one bad thought about the franchise that traded him in July.

It came from the heart, just the way he played.

He then went out and helped his new Thunder teammates dismantle the Bulls 114-95 in their home opener.

He broke their hearts, just the way he still plays.

While the numbers weren’t eye-popping — Caruso had three points, two rebounds, two assists, two blocks and, of course, two steals — it’s what he does beyond the box score that now benefits the 2-0 Thunder. He always brings the hustle plays, the lockdown defense and the leadership.

Oklahoma City was a great defensive team before it added Caruso, and, as the Bulls found out, the Thunder are even more lethal now.

The Bulls (1-2) haven’t shown consistency in the ball-security department, but what was seemingly cleaned up Friday night in the win over the Bucks, reared its ugly head. The Bulls had 26 turnovers, led by Zach LaVine’s seven.

‘‘They’re physical defensively, but a lot of [the turnovers were] self-inflicted,” Bulls guard Coby White said. “Just kind of playing too fast. We contributed a lot to the loss as a team. Anytime a team goes into a game and you’ve got 26 turnovers, you’re probably going to lose the game.”

And while coach Billy Donovan obviously didn’t like how his team performed for the second time in three regular-season games, he had nothing but praise for Caruso and the time he spent coaching him.

‘‘He’s great; I love him,” Donovan said. “I obviously had the chance to coach against him for four years when I was at Florida and he was at [Texas] A&M, and I give him a lot of credit because the way he played in college was totally different than the way he’s played in the NBA. I think it just speaks to his IQ, his willingness to do whatever a team needs him to do to impact winning, impact his teammates. He’s the same guy every day. You feel fortunate when you get to be around a guy like that every day.

“And to his credit, he figured things out. ‘OK, these are the things I need to do,’ and a lot of times those things are not sexy, so to speak. That’s what makes him so unique; he’s willing to do things that a lot of times other players won’t, whether they’re incapable or unwilling.”

It was disappointing to see how quickly the game got away from the Bulls.

They couldn’t have asked for a better first quarter, considering Oklahoma City is a Western Conference favorite to reach the Finals. After the first quarter, the Bulls only were down five despite shooting 2-for-11 from three-point range.

No problem. After all, the second unit seemed to find a rhythm against the Bucks, so maybe that group was on to something. The backups weren’t and neither were the starters when they came back into the game, as the Thunder outscored the Bulls 33-18 in the second quarter. The boat race was on, and the Bulls were using paddles.

All the while, they were having to get used to Caruso wearing Thunder blue.

“Yeah, it was weird,” White said of playing against Caruso. “It’s so new, right? This is the third game of the season. It would be different if it was, like, Game 30 or 40, but seeing him so early, it’s kind of weird.”