4 takeaways from the Chicago Bulls’ Game 1 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks — and what they can do to win Game 2 – Boston Herald

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The Chicago Bulls nearly pulled an upset in Game 1 of their first-round NBA playoff series against the Milwaukee Bucks, erasing a 16-point first-half deficit before falling 93-86.

Here are four takeaways from the game as the Bulls regroup for Game 2 on Wednesday night in Milwaukee.

1. The Bulls committed to playing physical defense.

The Bulls defense was the star of the show Sunday, locking down a Bucks offense that finished the regular season on an ascendant scoring streak. After the Bucks jumped to a 16-point lead, the Bulls defense clamped down and held the Bucks below 20 points in the second and fourth quarters.

The key was a complete physical commitment. The Bulls threw bodies at every player and into every passing lane. This led to 21 Bucks turnovers, a high number of errors for such a veteran team.

The defense still showed weaknesses — especially on skip passes, which allowed the Bucks to move the ball through rotations until they hit an open player. But paired with an especially poor shooting night for both teams, this effort was enough to hold one of the top offenses in the league under 100 points.

2. The Bulls missed transition opportunities.

While the Bulls defense slowed the Bucks enough to mount a comeback, it didn’t directly transfer to the offensive end. Despite creating a high volume of turnovers, the Bulls scored only five points in transition.

This is out of character for a Bulls team that spent most of the season focused on building a defense-first identity that could slash teams in transition and thrive on the counter. At times, Bulls guards Zach LaVine and Alex Caruso seemed positioned to spray passes ahead to push the pace when they had numbers on the Bucks, only to tug the reins and set up a half-court offense.

“I thought we missed a lot of opportunities in the first half in transition,” coach Billy Donovan said. “I didn’t think that we did very well in the break. We had opportunities there. They really hurt us on the backboard, and when they aren’t there, when we do come down with the rebounds, we need to be able to run.”

3. Slowing Giannis Antetokounmp remains the focus.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Antetokounmpo is a game changer for the Bucks. He didn’t play his best in Game 1 and took only one shot in the fourth quarter, but he still finished with 27 points and 16 rebounds.

Whether he’s scoring or facilitating for his teammates, Antetokounmpo elevates the Bucks. The Bulls had the advantage whenever Antetokounmpo was off the court — the Bucks were plus-19 with the two-time MVP on the court and minus-12 without him.

For the Bulls, outscoring the Bucks when they’re without Antetokounmpo is mandatory to win games. But the Bulls were also effective in removing him from large chunks of the game because of fouls, nearly forcing Antetokounmpo out of the game in the fourth quarter when he leaped over Patrick Williams’ back with five fouls already on his ledger. Williams, however, was called for the foul.

Attacking Antetokounmpo is a daunting task. But with cagey players such as DeMar DeRozan able to draw fouls, it could be a way to knock the Bucks star off his rhythm.

4. The young Bulls got their first taste of the playoffs.

Sunday marked the playoff debut for several key players on the Bulls roster, including LaVine, Williams, Ayo Dosunmu and Coby White. For White and Williams, their roles and concerns didn’t change much from the regular season to the postseason.

Williams earned a start and spent most of his time focused on handling Antetokounmpo defensively. It’s a hard matchup for Williams, who is undersized and under-experienced against the reigning NBA Finals MVP. He also faded on the offensive end, taking only three shots in a continuation of timid offense.

White continued to come off the bench, creating a much-needed spark in the third quarter with three baskets, including a deep 3-pointer to give the Bulls their first lead.

But Dosunmu’s role was much different. The rookie played less than nine minutes, a major decrease from his role as starting point guard just a couple of months ago. Although Caruso reclaimed the starting position after recovering from wrist and back injuries, Dosunmu is still the No. 2 point guard with Lonzo Ball sidelined for the season.

Donovan said the Bulls didn’t enter the game with a plan of restricting Dosunmu’s minutes but that it came as a natural consequence of increased minutes for more veteran players.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence in Ayo, but as you get to this point in time and when there’s just a few days in between games, you’re going to look at Vooch (Nikola Vučević) and Zach and DeMar and their minutes are going to be a lot higher,” Donovan said. “Those guys are going to have to play a lot of minutes and that will certainly creep into other guys’ minutes.”

But DeRozan’s and LaVine’s minutes actually remained fairly level to the regular season, while players such as Derrick Jones Jr. — who completely exited the rotation for the final weeks of the season — featured more heavily than Dosunmu.

Bringing the rookie closer to his typical workload could give the Bulls a lift off the bench, but it also would be a new challenge for Dosunmu as the least experienced player on the roster.

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