CHICAGO – The Milwaukee Bucks played with fire a bit too long Thursday night and the woebegone Chicago Bulls beat them, 120-113, in overtime at the United Center.
The Bucks (13-6) rallied from a 12-point fourth quarter deficit to take a three-point lead in the final seconds, but the Bulls forced overtime and then had more gas than the visitors to close it out in the extra session.
“I think it came down to execution on both ends,” Bucks guard Malik Beasley said. “I think we gave ourselves a chance multiple times to come back and win the game. When you exert a lot of energy like that it’s hard to maintain it, especially in overtime. So, we just gotta stick together and learn from it.
“I think that’s one of our first losses like that. It happens. I thought we was going to pull it out again, but you know, (Alex) Caruso hit a tough shot and that gave them a little bit of momentum. Couldn’t figure out late game after that.”
Chicago (6-14) snapped a five-game losing streak.
Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 26 points and 14 rebounds, but he only had four points on three shots at halftime. Damian Lillard finished with 18 points on 7 of 16 shooting, but he had just one point and didn’t make a basket in the second half. He led the team with 13 assists.
Brook Lopez scored 20 points on 7 of 12 shooting, including 6 threes. Beasley (19 points) also reached double figures for the Bucks.
“I don’t think we played at our best,” Antetokounmpo said. “We didn’t play at our best. We didn’t deserve to win the game. And sometimes the basketball gods take care of the game, you know what I’m saying? I think Chicago played harder than us, they moved the ball better than us, they executed better than us, they defend better than us. So, they definitely deserved the game more than us.
“We cannot rely on our talent every time, you know? There’s games that we come in and play extremely hard, we execute throughout 48 minutes and put ourselves in position to win, you know? And sometimes you do all that and you don’t win the game. But today I don’t think we put ourselves in position to win.
“I think we were just playing with the game. And sometimes when you play with the game, you lose.”
Why the Bucks did not foul on Alex Caruso’s game-tying three-pointer
With the Bucks leading 106-103 with 5.2 seconds left in regulation, the Bulls called timeout to draw up an inbound play. In the Milwaukee huddle, Bucks head coach Adrian Griffin said his team should not foul a Bulls player unless his back was to the basket on the catch. The team did not foul as the play unfolded, and Alex Caruso eventually hit a game-tying, 28-foot three-pointer over Brook Lopez to send the game to overtime.
Bulls center Nikola Vučević caught the inbound near the Bulls’ logo at halfcourt and eventually turned his back to Lopez to take one dribble and hand the ball off to Caruso. The Bucks were switching one-through-five, meaning Beasley hung back on Vučević as Lopez slid out on the Bulls’ guard.
Griffin explained his decision postgame: “Well, with 5 seconds – ideally, my philosophy is 5 seconds, around that 5-second mark – what I told the team was if they catch it with their back toward the basket, foul. They caught it a little further out. That’s on me. We should’ve just fouled if they caught it that far out as well and not giving them an opportunity to tie the game. When you get to that 5-second and under, it’s a little more tricky ‘cause you don’t want to foul them in the act of shooting as well. That was kind of right there at the cutoff point. Again, that was on me. We had an opportunity to foul. It did present itself. I didn’t know if it was going to present itself or not, but the rule and what I told them if they catch it with their back toward the basket it’s the general rule to foul.”
Lopez: “I definitely had an opportunity (to foul). I could’ve fouled ‘Vooch.’ I didn’t. ‘AC’ made a good play. It was definitely an option. Within the three(-point line). Outside the three was a little different, but I should’ve just made a heads-up play. That’s something that I have enough experience to know.”
Beasley: “The read is we should’ve fouled I think, personally. We had talked about it, but only if his back was to the basket. But, that’s a tough shot. Honestly, I think we should’ve just fouled. That’s us on players to understand that and especially when Vučević had his back turned, we could’ve fouled.”
Antetokounmpo said coaches have different philosophies in that moment and that, “You don’t really know what’s the best thing to do, but at the end of the day we got to that position and we didn’t have to be in that position, in my opinion.”
He added that, “If you look at the whole game – we did not deserve to win this game. Like, we didn’t play well. We did not respect the game. There was times that we played hard and we were able to get back in the game but at the end of the day we did not have to be in that situation, in my opinion.”
Nikola Vučević, Alex Caruso make huge plays to lead Bulls to upset
Like the Miami Heat on Tuesday night, Chicago was without two of their best players and hung with the Bucks for most of the night. All-stars DeMar DeRozan (ankle) and Zach LaVine (foot) missed the game, meaning the Bulls were missing 42.3 points per game from their offense. But like the Heat – who played without Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro – the Bulls overcame the absences of their top scorers with a balanced scoring effort.
BOX SCORE:Bulls 120, Bucks 113 OT
Bulls head coach Billy Donovan went 10-deep with his rotation and the Bulls made a concerted effort to rebound and share the ball – despite their standing as the second-worst team in assists and fourth-worst rebounding team in the league.
Chicago out-rebounded Milwaukee by eight and scored 17 second-chance points. The Bulls shot 45.4% and 32 of their 44 made field goals were assisted.
They were led by their lone remaining all-star in center Nikola Vučević, who scored 29 points and handed out six assists while pulling down 10 rebounds, but seven other Bulls reached double figures.
Chicago hustled its way to a 12-point fourth quarter lead with under eight minutes left in regulation, but after Coby White hit a step-back, 26-foot three-pointer over Lopez to give the Bulls a 103-96 lead with 1:26 to go it looked like (just like Miami) the Bulls would run out of firepower in winning time. Beasley and Lopez hit clutch threes and Giannis Antetokounmpo came up with a massive block and two free throws with 5.2 seconds left to give the Bucks a 106-103 lead.
“Even when it seems we start well, we just don’t seem to sustain it,” Lopez acknowledged. “There’s always little lapses if we start hot or not. And again, it’s just a process. We can keep saying we have to figure things out you know, but it’s coming to December and we’re still doing this. So, we need to have some sense of urgency.”
Without their primary shot creators, the Bulls’ halfcourt offense bogged down – but Alex Caruso bailed them out with a tough three-pointer over Lopez at the buzzer to send the game to overtime. Milwaukee took the first lead of overtime on a Beasley floater but Vučević gave Chicago a lead for good at 111-110 with 2:28 to go.
Caruso then clinched it for the Bulls by stealing an inbound pass with 35 seconds left and the Bulls up five points.
Bucks rotation thins out
When Pat Connaughton limped to the locker room in the second quarter of the Bucks’ victory over Miami on Tuesday, it further depleted a thin bench unit for Adrian Griffin’s team.
The 31-year-old was one of five players to have appeared in every game to that point and was tied for sixth on the team in playing nearly 23.6 minutes per game off the bench. While Connaughton had yet to find his three-point stroke consistently (33.9%), he remained a trusted outlet for the Bucks’ stars looking to create space on offense.
With Jae Crowder already sidelined following Nov. 14 adductor surgery, Griffin turned to point guard Cameron Payne as the immediate sub to replace Connaughton. In the second half in Miami, MarJon Beauchamp, AJ Green and rookie Andre Jackson Jr. all had opportunities on the court as well.
More:Bucks forward Jae Crowder is back on the court following surgery, eager to get back
Against Chicago, Jackson Jr. and Beauchamp were the players given the first crack filling Connaughton’s minutes.
“We lost Jae and that’s when I first started kind of getting more opportunities,” Jackson Jr. said at Thursday morning’s shootaround. “Now ‘PC’ has a little bit of an ankle injury, so I just know I’m still going to get more opportunities. Every day it’s just staying ready and being ready for my opportunity, whether that’s five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever they need me to play.
“And whenever I get out there, show that I know what I’m doing so they can have trust to put me out there. As a rookie I definitely have a lot trust to earn, so trying to just be as prepared as possible so when I get out there I can prove to the coaching staff and my teammates as well that I can be out there and help us win.”
Jackson Jr. played 12 minutes against the Bulls and scored four points on a highlight alley-oop dunk off a lob from Lillard and an impressive tip-slam off a Bobby Portis miss.
Unfortunately for him – and the Bucks – he was ruled out for the game in the fourth quarter with back tightness.
As for Beauchamp, before spraining an ankle against Toronto on Nov. 15 that sidelined him for three games, he had made 44% of his three-point shots in 16.7 minutes per game.
“It’s been a little difficult coming off the injury, just trying to (get) my rhythm back, game speed and reading people’s tendencies on the defensive side,” he said in Miami. “I’ve just got to keep that confidence and everything will be good.”
Beauchamp looked tentative offensively at first on Thursday, but looked for his shot a bit more as the game went on against the Bulls. He finished with seven points on 3 of 7 shooting.
He said it
Veteran Jae Crowder is back with the team full-time following surgery to repair a torn adductor – and he’s looking to help the young Bucks fill in for him and Connaughton.
“Use my voice. I think Coach Griff had a message for me when I was going through surgery, ‘You didn’t have surgery on your vocal chords.’ That’s what he said. Just telling me that the group needs my voice. I missed the Washington-Boston trip, but every trip after that, I’m going to be on and I feel like my voice is going to be helpful for our group still, especially those young guys. And I’ve been doing a good job of just trying to help them, tell them what I see and listen to those guys and try to help those guys as much as possible. So I’m definitely using my voice right now.”
5 numbers
5 Consecutive three-pointers the Bulls made in the middle of the first quarter to erase an early 11-2 Bucks lead. It was the second-straight hot start for the Bucks (they opened with a 15-2 lead in Miami) and again they eased off the gas. Chicago ultimately took a 26-24 lead over Milwaukee after the first quarter.
9-1 Bucks record this season when tied or leading at halftime. Thursday was the Bucks’ first loss in such a situation, as Lillard helped the Bucks take a 55-49 lead into the break after he scored 17 points on 7 of 10 shooting. It helped offset a 35% (14-for-39) shooting performance from the rest of the Bucks in the opening 24 minutes.
18-4 Bucks’ regular-season record vs. the Bulls since 2018-19.
69.2 Percent shooting at the free throw line for the Bucks, making 9 of 13 from the charity stripe. They came into the game No. 18 in the league as a team at 77.1%.
1-21-22 The last time Khris Middleton missed three free throws in a game, which also came against the Bulls. Middleton was 2-for-5 on Thursday. After coming up clutch at the end of the Miami game, Middleton struggled against Chicago with nine points on 3 of 10 shooting, which included a couple of uncharacteristic airballs from midrange. He did not play in the overtime as he played 27 minutes in regulation.
