MILWAUKEY – – Demar DeRosan has made sure the Chicago Bulls change their painful recent history against the Milwaukee Bucks and restart this first round series.
Now the defending champion Bucks is the one who suddenly hurts when the teams head to Chicago all tied up.
DeRosan scored the highest playoffs of his career with 41 points and the Bulls overtook the Bucks 114-110 on Wednesday night in Game 2. Nikola Vucevic added 24 points and 13 rebounds, while Zach Lavine had 20 points, while the sixth-placed Bulls beat the third- put the Bucks only for the second time in their last 19 meetings.
“No matter what you do in the regular season, it’s a whole new beginning and a new way of thinking,” DeRosan said. “You could see it in all the boys. It doesn’t matter if we lose 20 times to these guys. This is an opportunity for us to compete. We need to take advantage of that. “
The big question now is what shape the Bucks will be in when this series resumes on Friday.
Bobby Portis left the game with a scratch on his right eye after the first quarter, and Chris Middleton came out with 6:49 on the left after his left foot gave way while trying to land when turning.
Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said after the game that Middleton has a dislocated medial collateral ligament and will undergo an MRI on Thursday.
“He’s always been positive and he knows what kind of team we are and how resilient we are,” said Bucks guard Jrou Holiday. “We just want him to come back as soon as possible and be healthy so he can come here and help us win matches.”
Budenholzer said Portis “should be fine in a while.”
Janice Adetokunmpo leads Bucks with 33 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists, giving him one assist from his second career triple-double playoffs. Adetokunmpo increased the total number of points after the season in his career to 1715 to overtake Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1692) for the most in the history of the Bucks.
Brooke Lopez scored 25 points for Bucks. Middleton scored 18 and Holiday 15.
DeRozan scored eight points in a 13-0 run that began at the end of the third quarter, giving the Bulls a 96-80 lead with 9:47 left. The Bulls were still leading by 15 before Milwaukee came together in the final 7 minutes.
Lopez scored three points to reduce Chicago’s lead to 112-109 with 56 seconds left.
“We expected these boys to escape,” Vucevic said. “They are a champion team for a reason. They’ve been there before, so we expected them to escape. “
But after Alex Caruso and Vucevic won offensive fights in the Bulls’ subsequent reign, DeRosan’s order was 114-109 with 18.2 seconds left.
Chicago recovered from a 93-86 loss in Game 1 and continued to show the toughness that was lacking at the end of the regular season, especially when the Bulls faced top teams.
The Bulls have lost 15 of their last 22 regular season games. During the regular season, the Bulls came out only 2-21 against the top four placed in each conference.
“I think playing with some of these higher-level teams at the end of the year might have hardened us, helped us grow,” said Bulls coach Billy Donovan. “It simply came to our notice then. This helped us to have such a mentality that we have to move on to the next game. I think at the time this year, when we were playing against good teams, when he started to go a little bit in the other direction, we didn’t have enough of ourselves to bring him back in our direction. “
Chicago ended the second quarter with a 15-4 run to take a 65-4 lead at halftime.
The Bulls increased their lead to 18 in the early third quarter before Bucks reunited with a small squad that included Adetokunmpo, Middleton and reserve guards Grayson Allen, Pat Conauton and Jevon Carter.
Milwaukee sprinted 15-2 to reduce the Bulls’ lead to three at the end of the third period. But the Bulls responded with 13 consecutive points and remained before the reset of the road.
“We did a good series, but in the last minute of the third quarter I thought we could have been better, and then coming out of the fourth quarter, another big swing,” said Budenholzer. “We dug some big holes.”
ADVICES
Bulls: After shooting low for the season at 32.3% and passing 7 of 37 in the 3-point range with a 93-86 loss in Game 1, the Bulls shot at 49.4% and crossed 12 of 25 beyond the arc on Wednesday. DeRozan, LaVine and Vucevic shot a combined 21 of 71 in total and 4 of 22 out of a range of 3 points in Game 1. They combined 33 of 62 in total and 7 of 14 in an attempt for 3 points in Game 2. … Caruso there were 10 assists along with nine points. … Patrick Williams had 10 points and nine rebounds.
Bucks: George Hill missed a third consecutive abdominal stretch. Budenholzer said before match 2 that Hill is not expected to return in the short term and that the team will watch as Hill’s 35-year-old guard progresses over the next “handful of days or more” … The Bucks had 15 turns to increase its total series up to 36.
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