Chicago Bulls manage to turn the tables in Milwaukee
MILWAUKEE — Sometimes, the shocking upsets of March happen outside the NCAA Tournament.
There was no reason to think the Chicago Bulls would find success in Milwaukee on Sunday afternoon. Not only did the Bulls get their clocks cleaned three times by the Bucks earlier this season, Milwaukee also had won 11 of its last 13 games.
Better check those brackets.
Somehow, the Bulls got rolling north of the border and handled the Bucks 109-94 at the Bradley Center.
“I can actually say we played some legitimate defense today, got back in transition,” said Jimmy Butler, who recorded a career-high 14 assists to go with 20 points. “We came out, trusted the game plan of getting back.”
There were a couple of legitimate reasons why the Bulls played so well in this one. For starters, the ball went in the net. Led by red-hot Nikola Mirotic, the Bulls' starters shot 67 percent. Mirotic knocked down an amazing 11 of 14 shots from the field, including 6 3-pointers, for 28 points.
“I was so mad when I missed the last 3,” Mirotic said. “I so badly wanted to make over 30 (points). I need to be happy with the game I did. My teammates did a great job. We knew they were going to double Jimmy, so Jimmy was making very good decisions.
The Bulls' confidence grew with the offense clicking.
Center Robin Lopez (18 points) had it going early. In the second half. Rajon Rondo (18 points, 9 assists) took advantage of the attention focused on Butler and Mirotic to find easy paths to the basket.
Coach Fred Hoiberg pointed out another key ingredient. The Bulls (35-39) survived an early flurry from Milwaukee, which took a 9-point lead early in the second quarter as the Bulls' second group struggled. The starters were able to pull it together and took a 56-55 edge at halftime.
“A lot of times when we get slapped in the face, we get punched in the mouth, when the adversity hits us, we don't handle it well,” Hoiberg said. “We talk about every game it's going to happen at some point. You're going to have to handle adversity.
“Tonight, we did that. They got off to a good start, we hung in there, we kept battling. I didn't see any head-hanging. It's handling adversity; that's the biggest thing we have to do if we want to have a chance these last eight games.”
The Bulls played a miserable third quarter in Friday's home loss to Philadelphia. Two days later, the Bulls dominated the third quarter, hitting 14 of 21 shots from the field and outscoring Milwaukee 35-24.
Wary of that second unit, Hoiberg kept Butler on the floor at the start of the fourth and the Bulls pulled away. Butler hit a 3-pointer as Milwaukee's Khris Middleton was called for a technical, making it 96-81. A couple of minutes later, Paul Zipser tried to check in for Butler, the refs wouldn't let him and Butler stole a pass for an uncontested dunk to push the lead to 17.
Hoiberg actually got to pull the starters early, and they got a big ovation from the usual heavy-Bulls crowd at the Bradley Center.
“The last two times we played these guys, they embarrassed us,” Rondo said. “We came out with some fight, not worrying about how hot they've been or our loss to Philly; just we need to stand our ground and put up a better fight then we did the last two times.”
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