Milwaukee — On their way to winning their first NBA championship, the Milwaukee Bucks turned into a defensive juggernaut during the postseason, finishing No. 1 on playoff teams in defensive efficiency after bottoming out in the top 10 during the regular season.
The Bucks fell to No. 14 in defense during the 2021–22 regular season. But he once again turned up the intensity for Sunday's postseason start, calming the Chicago Bulls' offense en route to a 93-86 Game 1 win in Milwaukee.
Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said, "Sometimes you get an ugly win." "It's not always going to be beautiful or perfect."
Milwaukee started the game hot, jumping to a 9–0 lead and making a 16-point first-quarter advantage over their division rival after sweeping all four games in their regular-season series. But the Bulls came back to make the game competitive and took the lead in the third quarter before the Bucks recovered in the fourth quarter.
"He made a few more winning plays than us," said Bulls guard Zach LaVine.
Entering Sunday, the Bucks had lost five of their last six Game 1 runs during their last two playoff runs, their only win against the Miami Heat in Game 1 of last year's opening round. But they came on Sunday with a win despite 21 turnovers, an uncharacteristically poor performance from Khris Middleton, who scored 4 of 13 (1-for-7-3) 11 points with seven turnovers and zero points from Giannis Antetokounmpo in fourth. Did it quarter.
"There are many reasons why the game is ugly," said Antetokounmpo, who finished with 27 points and 16 rebounds. "I was not able to make an open shot, was not able to get into my position. Not just for us, for both the teams. I think not playing for a few days gets you out of rhythm. But The day at the end is a win win. We really didn't want to be down 0-1."
Milwaukee got defensive contributions from across the field on Sunday.
Antetokounmpo struggled with a foul that limited his minutes during the fourth quarter, but he remained a disruptive defensively whenever the Bulls came to him. According to ESPN Stats and Information Research, Chicago went 3-for-11 with Antetokounmpo as the closest defender.
On the periphery, Jew Holiday and Wesley Matthews combined slowed down DeMar DeRozan and LaVine, who shot 6 of 25 together whenever one of those two players was the primary defender. Chicago's Big 3 of DeRozan, Lavin and Nikola Vucevi shot 21-for-71 (29.6%) from the field and a combined 4 for 22 of 3 shots.
"I don't know what was going on," DeRozan said. "It wasn't just me. All of us. I guarantee me, Zach and Wooch are not going to miss too many shots again. We just have to keep what we did defensively and take it to another level." Tried."
DeRozan, who finished with 18 points in 43 minutes, said he was happy with most of the shots he took.
"I'll be with them again," he said. "Not at all, I'll shoot 6 out of 25 again."
Overall, the Bulls shot 32.3% from the field and 18.9% from the 3rd.
And as Antetokounmpo and LaVine both managed a foul problem in the fourth quarter, it was Holiday's defense that helped make up the difference.
According to ESPN Stats & Information, the Bulls went 0-for-7 in the fourth quarter with Holliday as the primary defender, and Holiday countered all seven shot attempts.
Bucks center Brooke Lopez said, "People like Wes, Jure and Khris and they take a lot of pride in playing good defense." "They took it even further at the end of the game. They knew we needed a stop, so they were completely 100% off and we were done."
Chicago has had issues competing against top teams in the past this season (14–14 against the top 4 seeds during the regular season) and putting together a competitive game against Milwaukee compares to their previous two regular season matchups. represents a step forward.
But considering the Bulls had a chance to win Game 1 in a row, Sunday's game felt like a missed opportunity for DeRozan.
"Yeah, I mean, this is what it is right now," DeRozan said. "He did what he should have done at home. We've got another chance to steal on the home court and that's our goal now. We have a lot to take away from this game, come and see a lot more." To be able to. Clean up yesterday's stuff, try and get better at it. It sure sucks, missed opportunities, but we got one more opportunity in Milwaukee before going back to Chicago."