Bucks vs. Bulls: Dame Time can’t quite cure the Vegas flu

Down Giannis, another second half where Milwaukee struggles to score.

After having little trouble taking out the Bulls (who were without Josh Giddey and Lonzo Ball) without Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo just six days ago at the United Center, the Bucks struggled much more last night even with Dame back, falling 111-116. Lillard led all scorers with 29 while Brook Lopez had 22 and Khris Middleton had 21 for Milwaukee. Nikola Vucevic and Giddey were the high men for Chicago at 23, backed up by Coby White’s 22. Read our full summary of the game here and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast Bucks In Six Minutes below.

What Did We Learn?

Second-half scoring has been an issue for this team lately; while we saw them struggle with the Nets’ pressure defense on Thursday, they managed to create some better looks in the closing minutes on Saturday, but they still need to be better at finding the best options to take those shots. Specifically Damian Lillard, who took no shots in the last 5:07 of gameplay. Just over two minutes prior, Dame finished off an 11-0 personal run that put the Bucks up four and was steadily taking the air out of the building. When asked about why Dame couldn’t get any looks after the game, Doc Rivers had this to say:

“That’s gotta be better. One thing I would say is I gotta do better job of making sure Dame gets the ball in his hands down the stretch of the game. We drew two plays up to get him on the secondary [action] because they were loading up and he never got it. We have to have an understanding to get it to him, and I just gotta get it to him and live with it.”

Now, it became clear after the game that Lillard is still dealing with the illness that’s worked its way through the roster over recent weeks, with upper respiratory symptoms causing weakness and windedness. However, he still managed somewhat of a late-game takeover and felt he could play through the maladies. For his part, here’s how he saw the closing minutes:

“I had the ball in my hands to start a lot of possessions, but we’re running plays. You don’t always want to attack a defense with no passes—it’s kind of letting them off the hook. We at least want the ball moving second, third side and then try to go. But a lot of things happen, you know. Sometimes teams get more aggressive and try to not let you get the catch. Sometimes guys see a lane to attack… That five minutes came and [went] quick. You look up, it’s back and forth, and it’s 2:28 left now. Now we gotta execute coming out of a time out and Doc might have something he wants to look at, and that might not be the ball coming to me. You go to somebody else there, they have a possession on offense, we come back down on transition, maybe somebody else gets a look. Now it’s 1:30 left, so that time can go by quick. But I do agree, it should be a balance. Even if it’s Giannis, even if it’s myself… obviously we don’t wanna go five minutes like that, but it happens.”

Health and Giannis’ return, which will hopefully come on New Year’s Eve, will naturally do a lot to make things easier for Dame et al. Milwaukee barely managed 50 points in the second half after scoring just 46 against Brooklyn three days ago, but unlike that game and its multiple breakdowns on both ends of the court, this came down more to missed shots. There wasn’t the same hero ball we saw on Thursday, but maybe this swung too far in the other direction, as the shot distribution in the last five minutes was five attempts from Lopez, four from Middleton, and two from Bobby Portis. A lot of those were clean looks, so they were generating good shots, but none of them were for their best shooter.

Three Positive Steps

I don’t want to get too down on the Bucks for these last couple games when they were without Giannis and Dame nearly all of the time, so while this was disappointing, and there’s not much to take away from a game where they’re lacking their star, a few things stuck out to me as silver linings:

Milwaukee only turned the ball over seven times.

Though the Bucks are actually league-average in terms of turnover rate, they’ve had some really ugly nights, especially against the Nets. This was a big swing in the other direction after 21 on Thursday, which nearly tied a season-high. Saturday evening they were one shy of their season-low. Interestingly, when the Bucks turn the ball over seven times or less this season, they’re 0-3.

Khris Middleton played a season-high 28 minutes.

Though he sat for literally an entire quarter (from 5:37 in the third to 5:26 in the fourth), he saw 27:38 of court time after 26:11 on Thursday. Doc said that the long stint on the bench wasn’t related to Ball’s flagrant foul when he closed out on Middleton late in the second, it was the 22 minutes he had entering the fourth:

Dame managed an efficient evening despite some shooting struggles.

Before his fourth-quarter mini-rampage, Lillard was sitting at just 6/15 and 18 points. Though his finishing line of 8/19 and 3/9 from deep doesn’t look great, he got to the line a total of 10 times. Likely feeling the effects of an 11-day layoff from NBA basketball to go with his lingering illness, he had an uncharacteristic three airballs. Still, he nearly won them this game and dished out 11 assists. All in all, a very solid night’s work.

Bonus Bucks Bits

• As mentioned, Giannis is still sick and didn’t even take shootaround this morning as he sat for his third game. In fact, the Bucks sent him home back up I-94.
• Here’s what Middleton had to say about his ankle, which Ball came down on for that flagrant foul. He added that it didn’t affect his running ability or movement in the second half.

• Over their last game and a half, the Bucks are shooting 41% from the floor and 33.8% from downtown. Isolating that to the second halves of each game, they’re 39.1% and 29.5%, respectively. Their second-half offensive rating in those games is just 94.2 and their net rating is -16.5.
• In the opening quarter, Chicago made hay inside while Milwaukee struggled mightily. The 20-2 Bulls advantage in the paint finished at 56-42 as the Bucks got it together, at least.
• Chicago certainly had a lot of success in the first quarter with 60.9% shooting from the field and 33 points, but they equaled that scoring output in the fourth with just 39.3% shooting thanks to some late free throws. I do think, however, that Milwaukee almost totally avoided the type of egregious defensive miscues that sunk them against Brooklyn. Doc thought their defensive effort on Monday at the United Center was one of their best of the season, and while last night’s wasn’t terrible by any means (113.7 DRtg), he was pretty critical of it:

“It felt like we were playing with fool’s gold the entire night. I thought defensively we had no presence the entire night. I think they were shooting 58% at halftime, we’re shooting 44% and it was a two-point game. [It] felt like either we’re gonna start really defending and then our offense would go up, or we’re not and it’s gonna be a tight game, and that’s what it was.”

• Taurean Prince has struggled mightily to finish around the rim in recent weeks, shooting 51% within four feet, good for the third percentile league-wide per Cleaning The Glass. However, Jim Owczarski mentioned that Prince has often heard things to the effect of “sorry I missed that call on your drive” from refs in the tunnel. He missed his first lay-in tonight but then converted his next three, prompting Eric Nehm to joke with us “can you have a heat check with lay-ups? Because that’s what we just saw.”
• Nikola Vucevic joined Brook Lopez in an exclusive club tonight: the only two centers in NBA history with at least 16,000 points and 800 three-point makes. When we talked to Lopez after the game, not only did he have no idea both he and Vooch were the only guys to have accomplished this, but when I asked him who he thought the other one was besides Vooch, he guessed Joel Embiid. When I was told there were two by a member of Bulls media relations during the game and asked to guess the other, I guessed Lopez for one and Karl-Anthony Towns, then Nikola Jokic for the other. Anyway, congrats to the big fellas.

Up Next

The Bucks will head to Indianapolis on New Year’s Eve for a 2:00 PM Central tip against the Pacers. Catch it on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin or on our Playback channel.

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