Bulls move on from Game 3 disaster, but season is on the line
The good news for the Bulls is they're not down 3-0.
They still have an opportunity to even up their first-round series against Milwaukee with a victory on Sunday afternoon in Game 4.
The bad news is Game 3 was about as bad a result as the Bulls could have scripted. Bucks guard Grayson Allen delivered some early daggers and the Bulls couldn't do anything about it.
Keep in mind, by "doing something about it," we mean bearing down and staying competitive, not another flagrant foul.
"Obviously we had an unbelievable crowd," Bulls coach Billy Donovan said Saturday. "I wish we would have played a whole lot better, I know our guys feel the same way. But they've got to put it in perspective of what they learned from that, how they can get better from it and what are the adjustments we have to do better or differently."
It's accurate to say the Bulls' season is on the line Sunday. A loss puts them down 3-1 heading into a potential vacation-inducing Game 5 in Milwaukee.
How well they compete Sunday may also help determine the future of this group. The Bulls couldn't compete against the best teams in the league all season, but the victory in Game 2 brought some hope they learned from all the adversity and were ready to take a step forward.
Game 3 suggested otherwise. The Bulls were never in the game and the 30-point deficit made it the worst home playoff loss in franchise history.
"It's one thing to talk about the series being tied 1-1 and (Khris) Middleton being out and anticipating how they're going to come out and play," Donovan said. "And it's a totally different thing of actually experiencing that."
After Friday's game, DeMar DeRozan talked about how the Bucks adopted a defensive strategy of pushing him and Zach LaVine left. Asked about that Saturday, Donovan pointed to a different concern.
"I didn't really think that was that big a deal," he said. "I really actually thought our spacing was a little bit difficult. These guys have all faced all these sorts of pick-and-roll coverages. In some of those situations our spacing wasn't very good and I think our spacing really the whole game was not great."
With Middleton likely out for the series with a knee sprain, the Bucks started a big lineup with ex-Bull Bobby Portis joining 7-footers Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez on the front line. Donovan mentioned that lineup was only on the floor for about 11 minutes.
But Portis, after missing most of Game 2 due to an eye abrasion, was fantastic, posting 18 points and 16 rebounds. Allen scored just 3 points in the first two games combined, then drained 3 straight 3-pointers in the first quarter on Friday. That flurry put the Bucks ahead by 15 and the Bulls never recovered.
No Bulls played particularly well, but the step backward by Patrick Williams is a concern. He finished with 1 points, 4 rebounds and went 0-for-9 from the field after playing well in Game 2. The emphasis for the second-year forward to stay aggressive will continue.
"They've got to wrap their head around the fact that whether it was a triple overtime game and lost on a half-court buzzer-beater or if we lost by 75 points, it's all one game," Donovan said.
"Every game I find in a series gets more and more challenging. I think (Game 4) will be even more challenging than (Friday)."
• Twitter: @McGrawDHSports