CHICAGO — The Milwaukee Bucks are now one win away from advancing to the second round of the playoffs after beating the Chicago Bulls 119-95 in blowout fashion in Sunday’s Game 4. The win puts the Bucks up 3-1 in the series, with the opportunity to close things out on Wednesday at home.
The Bulls started off Game 4 stronger than the previous game, feeding off the energy from the fans inside an energized United Center. However, Milwaukee never surrendered the lead from start to finish, and managed to once again enter halftime with a double-digit lead. Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 32 points in the win, while reserve guard Grayson Allen came up big off the bench for the secon -straight game with 27 points.
On the other end of things, the Bulls got 24 points out of Zach LaVine, in addition to 23 points from DeMar DeRozan and another 20 points from Patrick Williams. But it wasn’t nearly enough as the Bucks took care of business rather easily and cruised to another win.
Here’s three takeaways from Game 4 between the Bucks and the Bulls.
1. Grayson Allen’s encore
After dropping 22 points in Game 3, Allen once again torched the Bulls to the tune of a 27-point performance. Who could’ve predicted that after All-Star forward Khris Middleton went down in Game 2, that Allen would be the one to step up in his absence? The craziest thing about it is he’s been doing all this damage off the bench for the Bucks.
Following the Game 3 win, Milwaukee head coach Mike Budenholzer praised Allen’s underrated skill of being able to attack closeouts and get to the rim, and while a bulk of Allen’s buckets came from beyond the arc, he once again took advantage of the defensive pressure the Bulls were showing Giannis and got to the rim essentially whenever he wanted.
Aside from Allen’s offense, his defense has also been a huge win for the Bucks. At one point in the first quarter, Allen picked Bulls guard Coby White’s pocket on back-to-back possessions, both times it led to buckets for the Bucks.
Allen, who has received a wealth of boos from Bulls fans every time he touches the ball stemming from a hard foul he laid on Chicago guard Alex Caruso early in the season, has thrived in the hostile environment that Chicago fans created in the past two games. As a player who is no stranger to being disliked by opposing fanbases dating back to his Duke days, it feels like Allen thrives off the animosity. Even his teammates have taken to playfully booing him whenever he does something good.
“They’re hilarious, I didn’t even tell them to do that, they just started doing it on their own,” Allen said after Game 4. “Now it’s just going to become a thing, I think they’re gonna boo me probably for the rest of the postseason.”
If booing Allen keeps the train rolling for him and the Bucks, then Milwaukee might as well continue with it.
2. Bulls’ regular-season trend rears its ugly head
Chicago finished Game 4 with its bench putting up just 17 points (not including garbage-time points). In Game 3, the second unit accounted for just 16 points. Compare that to the 35 points Milwaukee got from its bench in Sunday’s win in addition to the 33 points from reserves in Game 3 and you can see the blatant disparity. But that’s not entirely abnormal for the Bulls this season.
During the regular season, Chicago ranked 29th in the league in bench points per game (26.7), and that stat has only gotten worse, averaging just 16.8 points in four games, ranking last amongst teams in the playoffs. This has been a general storyline for the Bulls all season, relying heavily on DeRozan, LaVine and Vucevic and living with the results. Even in Chicago’s Game 2 win in Milwaukee, it took DeRozan going off for 41 points to carry the Bulls to a win.
Since that offensive explosion from DeRozan, Milwaukee has done a great job of containing both him and LaVine, forcing others to beat them. So far, no one on Chicago’s team has been able to take advantage of wide open looks they’re getting, as all the offensive workload has fallen on the shoulders of the Bulls’ Big 3.
3. An MVP performance from Giannis
In Game 3, Giannis was able to put things in cruise control as the Bucks were getting great production from guys like Allen, Bobby Portis and Jrue Holiday. While Giannis looked like he was still operating at around 70 percent of his full capabilities, he showed why he’s a two-time league MVP with a championship to his name.
The Bulls tried everything possible to slow down the Greek Freak, but no amount of defensive pressure could slow him down. He discarded defenders at will on his way to the rim, and flexed his strength with every tough finish.
When he wasn’t barreling his way to the basket, he was drawing two defenders inside the paint and showed off his passing skills with well-placed dimes all afternoon. Antetokounmpo finished the game with seven assists, as he excelled at reading the defense and finding the open guy on the perimeter for a good look.
The Bucks couldn’t ask for two better performances from their team in the last two games in Middleton’s absence, and it all starts with Giannis, who has done a great job of striking balance between dominating by scoring, as well creating opportunities for his teammates who are knocking down shots.
