Bulls grab Bucks by the antlers, but can't finish off a victory
MILWAUKEE — The last time the Bulls played in Milwaukee, just 12 days ago, they jumped ahead by 22 points, then fell behind by 22 and lost badly.
In Wednesday's rematch, the Bulls didn't get run over by a freight train, Wile E. Coyote style, in the second half. So consider it progress.
The Bulls might have still felt like roadkill after this one, though. After hanging close all night, they failed to secure a defensive rebound twice in the waning seconds, allowing Milwaukee's Khris Middleton to drain a game-winning 3-pointer with 5.2 seconds left as the Bucks won 116-113 at Fiserv Forum.
Justin Holiday pump-faked his way into a good look at a tying 3-pointer on the other end, but it missed. Holiday extended his streak of making at least one 3-pointer to a franchise-record 33 games, but went just 2-for-10 overall from long range.
“Especially when I pump-faked and I saw they both (defenders) split, I thought for sure I was going to make it,” Holiday said. “It was on line, just a little short. I'll shoot it 10 times again if I could. I thought it was going to drop.”
Just about everyone in the Bulls locker room felt a little upbeat, knowing they took the second-place team in the East down to the wire. Especially after what happened in their previous appearance at the Bucks' new arena.
“It is improvement,” Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said. “We talked about it before the game, that might have been our best 24 minutes of the season (in the Nov. 16 game), then followed up with our worst 12. They outscored us by almost 30 in the third quarter. Against a team that's leading the league in scoring, we held them to 53 in the second half (on Wednesday). We wanted to shut down the paint in the second half, I thought we did as good job.”
There was no shortage of incentive on the Bulls' side. There was Jabari Parker playing against his former team, Robin Lopez battling his twin brother Brook. Maybe Ryan Arcidiacono was out to prove he's a more deserving Villanova folk hero than Bucks rookie Donte DiVincenzo.
Arcidiacono matched his career-high of 22 points, set two days ago against San Antonio, and hit 5 of 9 shots from 3-point range.
Arcidiacono's fifth 3-pointer brought the Bulls within 107-105 with 5:02 left, then Robin Lopez tied the score with a post bank a few trips later.
The Bulls held a 2-point lead twice down the stretch. Lopez scored in the post to make it 109-107 with 3:04 left. Then Zach LaVine made a nice play driving into the lane and feeding Parker for a dunk. Parker missed a chance at a 3-point play and the Bulls led 111-109 with 1:48 left.
Giannis Antetokounmpo tied it with a dunk, then added 2 free throws to put Milwaukee back ahead with 36 seconds left, the Bulls responded with a nice play off a time out and needed less than 3 seconds for LaVine to tie it with a driving reverse lay in.
“We played great as a team,” Robin Lopez said. “Previously, there's been a point of the game when the other team's made a run and we've kind of broken down a little bit. I thought we were fairly consistent tonight throughout the whole game.”
Parker and LaVine led the Bulls with 24 points each. Lopez tallied a season-high 17 points on 8 of 10 shooting. It was his first double-figure scoring game this year.
Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 36 points, 11 rebounds and 8 assists. Several times, he forced his way into the paint and just overpowered anyone in his way for a dunk.
Malcolm Brogdon added 24 points, going 6-for-6 from 3-point range.
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