Chicago Bulls at Milwaukee Bucks Analysis: Butler’s Career Game
Sunday afternoon is a great time for Chicago Bulls basketball, and that is exactly what we got when the good guys visited their northern neighbors, the Milwaukee Bucks, for a 2:30 p.m. tipoff.
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Chicago has stabilized their rotations and rolled out the same starting lineup that Fred Hoiberg has run with for the past few games. Nikola Mirotic and Paul Zipser remained with the starting unit, alongside mainstays Rajon Rondo, Jimmy Butler and Robin Lopez.
It didn’t last long. Mirotic and Butler got off to hot starts, but Rondo was a bit flat, including getting called for traveling on a drive to the lane, and Zipser barely made it two minutes before being subbed out in favor of Denzel Valentine. Makes you wonder if/when Zipser will see the court again given Jerian Grant’s role on this team and he was the last Bull to get the hook so early in a game. Of course, Zipser was subbed because he had two fouls. So maybe he survives.
Butler, master of assists, got off to a hot start in that category again. He had five first quarter assists to go with 3-for-4 shooting. Mirotic started out 4-for-4. As a team, they started out 12-for-19. It was all good early. They finished the first quarter down 31-29, but both teams shot the lights out.
The second quarter started with good and bad things. The Bulls gave up a 5-0 run and Jimmy Butler set a new career-high for steals in a season when he grabbed steal No. 128. Same story, different game as Chicago got absolutely hammered in the paint. Greg Monroe, who didn’t start, had 12 points very early and all of those points were in the paint. As a team, Milwaukee just rammed it down the Bulls throat, go right to the rim. Even Jason Terry got some love in the lane.
Hoiberg’s second quarter lineups didn’t make much sense. He put Michael Carter-Williams out there, then Joffrey Lauvergne, then out of nowhere it was Jerian Grant. Bobby Portis getting time made sense, but with that lineup it seemed odd. Got worked by Monroe on an occasion, just nothing inspiring and the Bucks ran their lead to 12 quickly, forcing a Hoiberg timeout.
Chicago kept the game close enough, it was between 8-10 points for a while, but the Bulls did bad things. After a timeout, Butler took the ball to the wing, one-on-one with Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had been killing Chicago all game, and just held the ball. He didn’t drive, didn’t move the ball. Then he drove and way, way too late in the shot clock looked for a bailout and caused a shot clock violation for Robin Lopez. That’s just bad basketball by Butler.
And then the Bulls went on a small run. They got lots of defensive stops, attacked the rim, found the open shooter. They managed to fight all the way back to a tie game 52-52. You could credit the slowed defensive issues in the paint, that definitely contributed. The offense that was flowing early for Milwaukee was disrupted and Giannis finished the first half with 11 points, most of which he grabbed very early in the game. Mirotic led all scorers with 16 in the half, followed by Lopez with 14. Chicago spent most of the first half chasing the Bucks, but finished the first half with a 56-55 lead.
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The second half started out flat-footed for the Bulls. Once again, Butler was playing very poorly in relation to the shot clock and it was the third time that Lopez would found for a shot well out of his range, with an expiring shot clock. And then, they got it rolling. All the starters got to double digits for scoring by the mid-point of the third quarter, even Zipser who had to be pulled at the beginning of the game for fouls. Mirotic kept humming along, knocking down a lot of shots, getting to 22 points for the game on a huge 3-pointer that created the first daylight between the two teams, the Bulls leading 78-69 just over five minutes left in the quarter. Chicago kept rolling and Milwaukee kept pace for the most part, trailing 91-79 after three quarters. Chicago was shooting 64.9 percent for the game and over 61 percent from 3-point range. Butler set a new career high during the quarter, getting to 13 assists for the game. And that was in a game where he killed several possessions by stopping the ball and wasting clock.
Things started to unravel for Milwaukee, mostly because nothing unraveled for the Bulls. Chicago just kept hitting shot after shot and the Bucks had no answers. Then the frustration set in as Khris Middleton opted to not get back on defense, leaving Butler for a wide-open 3, which he made, and getting a technical for barking at the refs. The lead ballooned all the way to 20 points for the Bulls and they carried their 60-plus percent shooting for almost 42 minutes of this game. Absolutely hot shooting and nothing else, giving the Bulls a huge lead.
Chicago’s win moved them to even with Miami on wins, two down in the loss column, heading into the Heat’s game against the Boston Celtics on Sunday night. The loss means Milwaukee’s spot at No. 5 in the East was very short-lived, pretty much exactly the length of this game. The win for the Bulls saves them from a season sweep at the hands of the Bucks.
Mirotic led the way with 28 points on 78.6 percent shooting from the field. Lopez and Rondo each scored 18 points. Butler set a new career high for steals in a season and a single game personal best with 14 assists to go with 20 points.