Will sea of red drown Bucks?
Mike Dunleavy used to play for Milwaukee. So he knows as well as anyone how the Bucks' homecourt advantage might be diminished for Games 3 and 4 because of large numbers of Bulls fans who typically swarm across the Wisconsin border
"It's noticeable. It's definitely irritating," Dunleavy said, speaking from a Bucks perspective. "The couple years I was there, shoot, we played 39 home games and 43 on the road, basically."
With a 2-0 lead in this first-round series, the Bulls will head north for Thursday's Game 3 at the Bradley Center. During the regular season, the Bulls often have more fans in the building and it will be interesting to see how that plays out in the first playoff series between the I-94 rivals in 25 years.
Dunleavy spent two years playing for the Bucks from 2011-13, so he missed one of the largest turnouts of Bulls fans in recent memory, late in the 2010-11 season. But he does remember a few times when Milwaukee's homecourt advantage was squashed.
"You're thinking about things like, 'Aw man, let's shut these guys up,' in your own building. It's just a little odd," Dunleavy said. "They still have homecourt, and we expect them to play really well, but it would be great to have that advantage in having some extra fans up there to make a little noise.
"I'm happy to be on the Bulls' side now. Hopefully we get a ton of people up there, lots of red and fill that thing up."
The Bucks don't seem too concerned about Bulls fans invading the Bradley Center. Rather than a futile attempt at preventing tickets being sold in the Chicago area, Milwaukee owner Jamie Dinan offered a different deterrent.
"I would say it's going to be a very long, long, lonely drive home to Chicago after the games here," Dinan said in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "That's my advice. Stay home, because you're going to be really lonely and sad on that long ride home."
This will be a pivotal game in the series. If the Bulls win, they'll have a commanding 3-0 lead, but if the Bucks can get on the board Thursday, they'll have a chance to tie the series with another victory in Saturday's Game 4.
"It's a must win for them, but we also understand our position and the opportunity that we have to get a commanding lead in the series," Pau Gasol said. "It would be a huge game for us if we can get it."
A key factor during the first two games in Chicago was Milwaukee's inability to assert its defense. Without a go-to scorer on the roster, Bucks coach Jason Kidd has focused on using his long-limbed lineup to create an aggressive, double-teaming, turnover-inducing defense.
It has worked at times, such as the first quarter of Game 1 when the Bulls scored just 11 points. But they made the right adjustments and scored 60 points during the second and third quarters.
"You can't hold onto the ball against them," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said Wednesday. "I think the ball movement is important. We've shot the 3 fairly well. I think that's important. … When you have high assists, it makes you hard to guard. You can't lock into one or two guys."
Gasol has received countless double-teams while averaging just 10.5 points during the first two games. But the Bucks try to swarm any player that gets the ball in the paint, which is why moving the ball is so important for the Bulls.
"If the double-teams continue, so be it," Gasol said. "I know if they're double-teaming me, there's a guy that's going to be wide open who's going to get a better shot than I would. We'll see. I'll be prepared if that stops at some point."
• Get the latest Bulls news via Twitter by following @McGrawDHBulls.