MILWAUKEE — On the way to winning their first NBA championship, the Milwaukee Bucks transformed into a defensive juggernaut during the postseason, finishing No. 1 among playoff teams in defensive efficiency after placing near the bottom of the top 10 during the regular season.

The Bucks dipped to the No.14 in defense during the 2021-22 regular season. But they once again turned up the intensity for the start of the postseason on Sunday, smothering the Chicago Bulls offense en route to a 93-86 Game 1 victory in Milwaukee.

“Sometimes you got to win ugly,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “It’s not always going to be pretty or perfect.”

Milwaukee began the game hot, jumping out to a 9-0 lead and building a 16-point first quarter advantage over its division rival after sweeping them in all four games in their regular-season series. But the Bulls stormed back to make the game competitive and even took a lead in the third quarter before the Bucks recovered in the fourth.

“They made a couple more winning plays than we did,” said Bulls guard Zach LaVine.

Entering Sunday, the Bucks had lost five of their past six Game 1s during their last two playoff runs with their lone win coming against the Miami Heat in Game 1 of the opening round last year. But they came away with a victory on Sunday despite 21 turnovers, an uncharacteristic poor performance from Khris Middleton, who shot 4 of 13 (1-for-7 from 3) for 11 points with seven turnovers, and zero points from Giannis Antetokounmpo in the fourth quarter.

“So many reasons why the game was ugly,” said Antetokounmpo, who finished with 27 points and 16 rebounds. “Wasn’t able to make open shots, wasn’t able to get to our spots. Not just for us, both teams. I think not playing the game for a couple days, gets you out of rhythm. But at the end of the day a win is a win. We really didn’t want to be down 0-1.”

Milwaukee got defensive contributions from all over the floor on Sunday.

Antetokounmpo battled foul trouble that limited his minutes during the fourth quarter, but he continued to be a disruptor defensively whenever the Bulls came near him. Chicago went 3 for 11 with Antetokounmpo as the closest defender, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

On the perimeter, Jrue Holiday and Wesley Matthews combined to slow down DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine, who together shot 6 of 25 whenever one of those two players were the primary defender. Chicago’s Big 3 of DeRozan, LaVine and Nikola Vucevic combined to shoot 21-for-71 (29.6%) from the field and 4 of 22 from 3.

“I don’t know what the hell was going on,” DeRozan said. “It just wasn’t me. All of us. I guarantee, me, Zach and Vooch are not going to miss that many shots again. We just got to keep what we did defensively up and try to take that to another level.”

DeRozan, who finished with 18 points in 43 minutes, said he was happy with most of the shots he took.

“I’ll live with them again,” he said. “No way in hell I’ll shoot 6 of 25 again.”

Overall, the Bulls shot 32.3% from the field and 18.9% from 3.

And in the fourth quarter with both Antetokounmpo and LaVine managing foul trouble, it was Holiday’s defense that helped make the difference.

The Bulls went 0-for-7 in the fourth quarter with Holiday as the primary defender, according to ESPN Stats & Information, and Holiday contested all seven shot attempts.

“Guys like Wes, Jrue and Khris and they just take such great pride in playing good defense,” Bucks center Brook Lopez said. “They stepped it up even more at the end of the game. They knew we needed the stops, so they were totally 100% locked in and we got the job done.”

Chicago has had its issues competing against the top teams in the East this season (1-14 against the top 4 seeds during the regular season) and putting together a competitive game against Milwaukee represents a step forward compared to their last two regular season matchups.

But considering the Bulls had a chance to win Game 1 down the stretch, Sunday’s game felt like a missed opportunity to DeRozan.

“Yeah, I mean, it is what it is now. They did what they were supposed to at home,” DeRozan said. “We’ve got another opportunity to steal home court and that’s our goal now. We’ve got a lot to dissect from this game, to be able to come in and look over a lot of stuff tomorrow, try to clean up and be better at it. It definitely sucks, the missed opportunity, but we got one more opportunity here in Milwaukee before we go back to Chicago.”

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A wild back and forth game that came down to the wire ended in heartbreak for the Chicago Bulls, dropping Game 1 of their opening round series to the Milwaukee Bucks 93-86 Sunday night.

From an offensive perspective, the Bulls have had many better nights on the hardcourt as they finished 31-of-96 from the field, good for just 32.3%, as they closed the game with just 15 fourth quarter points. The pains stemmed from Chicago’s big three of DeMar Derozan, Nikola Vucevic and Zach LaVine who shot a combined 4-for-22 from three on the night and just 29.5 percent from the field.

For the Bucks, it was their 17th win in their last 18 games against the Bulls, led by reigning Finals MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo who dropped a game-high 27 points to go along with 16 rebounds.

While holding the defending champions to just 93 points was a welcome sign for the Bulls’ defense, their own 86 points was the fewest allowed by Milwaukee all season. DeRozan didn’t mince his words in his postgame interview about the poor offensive performance stating, “No way in hell I shoot 6 for 25 again”. This is the 7th playoff appearance of DeRozan’s career, as he’s averaged 41.8% shooting from the field in 58 games prior to Sunday. He’s been even worse from three in the playoffs with just a 23.3 percentage.

For Vucevic, the numbers aren’t much better comparing his regular season numbers to what he has done in his playoff career, dropping from a 49.4 field goal percentage to 45.3% in his three appearances.

A silver lining in the Bulls’ rough offensive performance? Their free throw shooting. Chicago finished 17-of-19 from the charity stripe, putting them well above their season average of 81.3 percent.

The series starts back up on Wednesday night for Game 2 in Milwaukee as the Bulls look to avoid dropping into an 0-2 hole. Tip off is scheduled for 8:30CT.

Make sure to check out our Bulls forum for the latest on the team.

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It’s never a great sign when an NBA coach reaches into Norman Dale’s playbook for the old “Hoosiers” state-championship pregame bit.

“For the guys going through this for the first time, I think they have to realize the court dimensions are still the same,” Billy Donovan said a little over an hour before Game 1 of the Bulls’ first-round series against the Bucks. “The rim’s still 10 feet. It’s still 15 feet on a free throw. They’ve got to control the things they can control with a really heightened sense of awareness and being alert.”

It’s a lesson one would hope professional players — even those making their playoff debuts — don’t actually need. Although given the almost unimaginably calamitous state of the Bulls’ shooting Sunday in a 93-86 defeat at Fiserv Forum, maybe they need even more of it.

Is it still 23 feet, 9 inches on a three-point shot? Because the Bulls shot 30 for 37 from deep. Somewhere, Jimmy Chitwood was horrified.

Here’s a thought: Before Game 2 on Wednesday, Donovan can instruct Coby White to sit on Patrick Williams’ shoulders and take a tape measure to Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, the best player in the world.

“See?” Donovan can say. “I told you guys he was only 6-11.”

Antetokounmpo wasn’t in his finest form in Game 1, and the Bulls nearly took advantage. Imagine if you’d told the Bulls they would go into the fourth quarter down only three points and then allow one of the league’s best offensive teams only 19 points in the final frame — with Antetokounmpo, who got into serious foul trouble, going scoreless. Donovan and his players would have to assume that meant they’d be basking in a much-needed “W.”

Alas, the Bulls scored all of 15 themselves in the fourth. DeMar DeRozan forgot all about being the NBA’s Mr. Fourth Quarter. Zach LaVine, one of those playoff first-timers, couldn’t come up with answers. Nikola Vucevic searched for his shot; getting it to drop was another matter entirely. On a night when Williams and some Bulls role players were too wide-eyed to bring anything helpful at the offensive end, it was an ugly, dispiriting way to go out.

“I’m not here to sit here tonight and say we deserved to win the game or I thought we would,” Donovan said. “We had our opportunity and came up a little bit short.”

The question now: Will there really be other opportunities for the Bulls in this series? Will Antetokounmpo allow it? Because even at less than his best, Antetokounmpo, who scored 27 and grabbed 16 rebounds, was a plus-19 in his 33 minutes, the most decisive statistic of the night. And he hasn’t even gotten lathered up yet.

Both teams were concerned about finding an early offensive rhythm after several days off while the play-in tournament was being contested, but Antetokounmpo had an MVP start, rebounding the Bulls’ first three misses and scoring five points at the other end as the Bucks shot out to a 9-0 lead.

The Bulls had runs of 7-0 in the second quarter and 11-0 in the third quarter with Antetokounmpo on the bench. With 2:52 left in the third, they led 69-64 and the sweet stench of an upset came wafting in. But the sensational big man returned to the action, drove and dunked with his left hand and then drove again for an acrobatic three-point play. It was a 10-2 Bucks answer and the last offensive spurt of the game for either team.

“There were obviously so many reasons why the game was ugly,” Antetokounmpo said. “We weren’t able to make open shots, weren’t able to get to our spots. Not just for us, but both teams. Not playing a game for a couple of days gets you out of your rhythm. But, at the end of the day, a win is a win. And we didn’t want to get down 1-0.”

We must point out here: “Ugly” is relative. If you’re the Bulls, it’s not having a single postseason win in the last five years. If you’re the Bucks, it’s not looking quite like a world champion wants to in Game 1 of its title defense.

Until Sunday, the last playoff game between these teams ended with the Bulls eliminating the Bucks 120-66 in the first round in 2015. That was the Bucks’ most lopsided playoff loss ever and came within four points of the NBA postseason record for margin of defeat. That’s what ugly once was in Milwaukee, when Antetokounmpo was still all of 20 years old.

“Hopefully on Wednesday,” he said, referring to Game 2, “we can play good basketball.”

That’s something the Bulls don’t want to have to try to measure up against.

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Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Playoff first round series between the Chicago Bulls and Milwaukee Bucks went down to the wire. After falling behind by double digits, the game was there for the Bulls as they mounted a comeback in the second half.

They even took the lead in the fourth quarter and had several chances to grab it again late.  As Chicago fell 93-86 in Game 1, the story was the struggles of DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine in this game, the Bulls’ two best players in the regular season.

DeRozan was fantastic for the Bulls all year long, earning the nickname “King of the Fourth” but on Sunday he really struggled. He shot 6 of 25 from the field, scoring just 18 points in the loss. Following the game, DeRozan talked about his struggles to reporters and vowed to never let it happen again:

Unfortunately, this has been something that has bothered DeRozan throughout his career as his struggles in the playoffs have been well documented. He’s been able to produce in the regular season but when it gets time to go in the postseason, he hasn’t been as good. In his career, DeRozan is now 24-35 in playoff games and 2-9 in Game 1’s.

And this is what the Bulls had hoped to avoid.

If DeRozan can turn it around, the Bulls can make it a series. But if he doesn’t, then this one is all but over.

Make sure to check out our Bulls forum for the latest on the team.

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MILWAUKEE – Alex Caruso won’t be fully healthy for this first-round playoff series.

That was stated by his coach, and then seen in his play in Sunday’s Game 1.

However, the Bulls have very little choice but to take the approach of Caruso just has to give them everything he’s got each game. That’s why Billy Donovan and the medical staff had him on a minutes watch, even with him beginning the series as a starter.

“He’s felt the best I think he has felt,” Donovan said. “Is he 100%? No, but he’s a lot better than he was those games before he sat out.

“I do think with Alex [minutes restrictions are] going to be somewhat important. I think if you start pushing him with his back up into the high 30s, I don’t that would be really, really wise. You want to see how he’s feeling in the game. He kind of throws his body in there and plays incredibly hard and physical, so we’ll have to see how he responds. I do think from a medical standpoint of where he’s at physically, there has been some talk about managing him and his minutes. It’s not something that’s 25. You start getting into the upper 30s and that’s something that won’t be good for him over a period of time.”

Caruso has been dealing with the back issues for weeks, and while his defense has been serviceable, where it seems to be bothering him is his offense. Specifically, his long-range shooting.

Caruso was a 35% shooter before the All-Star Break, but in his final five regular-season games, shot just 2-for-15.

Then in the first half against Milwaukee, Caruso was given three wide-open looks from three-point range and missed all three. He finished 1-for-5.

A definite concern, especially if the Bucks are going to continue double-teaming the likes of Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan, leaving Caruso wide open on the perimeter.

What no longer seemed to be a concern regarding Caruso, however, was this idea of bad blood still flowing with him and Milwaukee’s Grayson Allen.

It was Allen that disrupted Caruso’s stellar start to the year, picking up the infamous flagrant-2 in a Jan. 21 meeting, resulting in a fractured wrist and costing Caruso months.

Caruso called it a non-issue back in March, but both Derrick Jones Jr. and Nikola Vucevic did try to exact some revenge on Allen in regular-season games, with both Bulls players going to Allen’s head area on fouls.

According to Donovan, he hasn’t even heard a mention of it leading up to this playoff showdown.

“After it happened, I don’t think it was ever really an issue or it was brought back up with our team,” Donovan said. “These guys are pros. It’s over and done with, it’s been addressed.

“Maybe there was a little bit more of a storyline around the fact once we got ready to play them again after Alex had gotten hurt. But I have not heard anything at all or any talk like that. I think our guys realize that we’re playing against an outstanding team that’s won a world championship, is very seasoned, battle-tested, and we’ve got our hands full just playing basketball.”

Coachspeak

Leading into this first round series, the Bulls announced that assistant coaches Chris Fleming and Damian Cotter would miss Game 1 in Milwaukee, after testing positive for the coronavirus and going into the league’s health and safety protocol.

Donovan had no update on their return, but did say that they were working over Zoom throughout the week.

“We’ve kind of all gone through it, so everybody is still engaged, doing their job and trying to help where they can help,” Donovan said.

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MILWAUKEE – Zach LaVine had no idea how the first round playoff series with the defending NBA Champions will end up playing out.

He made that very clear after the 93-86 Game 1 loss to Milwaukee on Sunday night.

What the Bulls guard did feel very good about?

“We let them know that we were here,” LaVine said confidently.

Not a feeling they gave the Bucks throughout most of this regular season in getting swept, and not a message they sent to most of the NBA’s elite teams.

But LaVine was holding onto the idea that they withstood a flurry out of the gate in his first ever playoff game, could have let go of the rope like they have so often the last month, but instead were actually in position to win.

Down just three with 59 seconds left, it looked like Nikola Vucevic would cut it to one as his floater just missed. He seemingly grabbed his own rebound and put it back in. One problem. It didn’t go in. It rimmed out in heartbreaking fashion.

“Yeah, it was one of those that before I even shot, I kind of already saw it go in, and it just rimmed out,” Vucevic said of the key moment. “Obviously a tough one, especially at that moment of the game. Could have cut it down to one. It doesn’t mean we would have won, but still at that moment, you cut it down to one … it happens. It’s part of the playoffs.”

No problem. Like they did most of the second half, the Bulls defense stiffened up and gave them another shot with just under 30 seconds left. LaVine, who is always confident with his shot-making ability, attacked early in the clock, pulling up from 31 feet on a game-tying three off the screen that hit the back of the rim.

Coach Billy Donovan said he wanted to review the film to see if LaVine should have attacked the rim and gotten the two, but from his angle did like LaVine’s attempt.

So did LaVine.

“I thought it was a good shot. A lot of my shots I thought were good,” LaVine said. “We were down three, got a really clean look. Brook [Lopez] was six feet back. Probably one of the cleanest looks I had on the night. Just hit the back of the rim.”

A common theme for the Bulls’ “Big Three.” A lot of good shot attempts, and could have beens.

That’s how DeMar DeRozan finished 6-for-25, LaVine went 6-for-19, and Vucevic was 9-for-27. A combined 21-for-71 (29.5%) on a night where the Bucks were equally poor in the shooting department (10-for-38 from three).

“Yeah, I don’t know what the hell is going on … probably a week off,” DeRozan said of his woes. “But it just wasn’t me. All of us. We just got to get that feel. I guarantee me, Zach and Vooch ain’t going to miss that many shots again. We just got to do what we did defensively and keep that up.

“Most of the shots I took were wide open. Wide open. I’ll live with them again. No way in hell I shoot 6-for-25 again.”

The Bulls better hope not.

So with all the bad numbers to come out of this team’s first playoff appearance since 2017, what was the glass half-full that LaVine was counting on?

They withstood a 9-0 deficit to start the game, a terrible first quarter, and then arguably stood toe-to-toe in the middle of the ring with the champs after that.

“You can’t learn from it, then obviously it’s going to bite us in the ass, but I thought we did a good job fighting,” LaVine said. “I think it’s going to be a good matchup.”

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It has been Bulls guard Zach LaVine’s mantra for a few weeks now.

He either stopped making excuses sometime in March or simply had run out of them.

”We’ve done enough talking,” LaVine said several times in the weeks leading up to the Bulls’ first playoff appearance since 2017. ”It’s time to get it done now. Time to stop talking.”

Unfortunately for the Bulls, their play couldn’t match any talk on Sunday.

Giannis Antetokounmpo had 27 points and 16 rebounds, and the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks recovered after blowing a 16-point lead to beat the Bulls 93-86 in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.

LaVine had never played in a postseason series, but he has been around long enough to know words mean very little in the NBA’s ”second season.” It’s claw and scratch for four victories to move on to the next series or plan a vacation. There’s no middle ground.

So while the Bulls have spent all week saying the right things about their first-round playoff series against the defending champion Bucks, it’s time for action. How the roster is constructed might depend on it.

Most prognosticators have the Bucks eliminating the Bulls, but there’s a bigger picture to consider.

Executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley didn’t build this roster to be mediocre. Even if the Bulls go out in the first round, how they look in doing so might carry weight in terms of the offseason decisions the front office has to make.

What if the Bulls, without injured guard Lonzo Ball, upset the Bucks or take them to a Game 7? What if the series goes six hard-fought games and the Bucks go on to repeat as champions?

In that case, the idea of going with the same players and running it back with a healthy Ball next season makes some sense. The Bulls would have to make some tweaks, for sure, but Karnisovas and Eversley would have a core they could sell to the fan base.

Then there’s the other side of the coin. What if the Bulls are swept or grab one victory at home but are hammered in the four other games?

The Bulls went 2-21 against opponents with winning percentages of .600 or higher during the regular season and slipped from first place in the Eastern Conference at the All-Star break to sixth at the end of the season. So if they aren’t competitive in the playoffs, Karnisovas wouldn’t be able to sell standing pat to the fan base.

An ugly end to this season would mean everything and everyone would have to be on the table.

As it stands, the Bulls have just more than $100 million in guaranteed salaries for next season, not including the big pay raise LaVine will be due in free agency. With a supermax deal all but out the window, LaVine will be looking at a five-year, $200 million contract from the Bulls or a four-year deal worth about $160 million elsewhere. Will the Bulls commit to that, knowing the team fizzled out when it mattered most?

There’s also center Nikola Vucevic and his contract, which expires after the 2022-23 season, to consider. Might the Bulls look to trade him this summer?

And don’t forget that guards Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu might be candidates for contract extensions.

So, yes, this is only a first-round playoff series. But it might mean much more for the outlook of the Bulls’ core.

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DENVER – Cubs first baseman Frank Schwindel described the Cubs’ offensive dynamic as “fun to be a part of.” Outfielder Ian Happ characterized the team’s plate discipline and sheer number of hits as “pretty impressive.”

In a 6-4 win against the Rockies on Sunday, the Cubs’ offense racked up 13 base knocks. It was the fourth straight game that the Cubs have recorded double-digit hits and the fifth time this season. Though it’s too early in the year to put too much stake in the Cubs’ statistics, the way the team has been generating runs has started to establish a new offensive identity for the Cubs.

“I want us to be an offensive club,” said hitting coach Greg Brown, who the Cubs hired over the offseason. “And so when teams come in to play us, there’s an expectation that we play good offense. We have different ways of scoring runs. We’re going to have to find runs up and down the lineup and through our bench.

“And so we need to be able to be a little bit more dynamic and be able to score. So I think that that’s our goal, is to not be siloed into like, the three-run homer. I think that we need to be able to do multiple things.”

Brown laid out those expectations in the spring. And the team lived up to them on Sunday.

Catcher Willson Contreras delivered the first run, with a solo home in the first inning. Outfielder Seiya Suzuki recorded his fourth home run of the season in the seventh inning. In between, the Cubs added on one or two runs at a time with strings of base hits interspersed with walks.

Cubs third baseman Patrick Wisdom, who has been on a hot streak the past few games, started a two-run rally at the bottom of the batting order in the second inning. He doubled, Michael Hermosillo drew a walk, and Nico Hoerner drove them both in with a double.

The next inning, the top of the order delivered, with two-hole hitter Nick Madrigal doubling and Frank Schwindel scoring him with a single.

Coors Field is notoriously a hitter’s park, providing a unique combination of elevation and a spacious outfield. So, that certainly helps. But the ballpark only accounts for so much.

“They have a really good staff,” Ross said of the Rockies’ pitching. “I don’t want to dismiss the good at-bats, consistency. Look up and down the lineup. Guys are getting their pitches. … We’re willing to turn it over to the next guy, but we’re ready to hit our pitch from jump street, we’re not passive, we’re aggressive in the zone, and that can scare some teams out of the zone. And we can string together a bunch of hits in a row, and we’re never out of a ballgame.”

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