Milwaukee Bucks: Grades from 108-97 win over Chicago Bulls
After a rough stretch of three consecutive losses, the Milwaukee Bucks fought hard in their first nationally televised game, defeating the rival Chicago Bulls.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T | |
| All NBA | 30 | 34 | 24 | 20 | 108 |
| All NBA | 18 | 27 | 21 | 31 | 97 |
Tweet of the Game (R.I.P. Craig Sager):
Despite the Bucks victory, it is important to note the passing of Craig Sager, an incredibly influential part of the NBA over the past several years. In the national TV game on TNT, the Bucks honored Sager by wearing the #SagerStrong shirts during warm-ups, as well as having the shirts on hand for their cheerleaders and several fans. Before moving onto our grades, I want to use this time to say: R.I.P. Craig Sager, you will be missed.
Just days removed from a three-game losing streak, the Milwaukee Bucks looked to be right back on track in this game. They were able to use their home field advantage and some hot shooting from Jabari Parker to shoot out to an early first quarter and they never looked back after that.
Giannis Antetokounmpo kicked the game off with a 30-footer to take a 3-0 lead over the Bulls and then the Bucks held that lead for the entirety of the game. As a team, the Bucks had one of their best shooting nights, especially from behind the arc, where they were 11/20.
It was a definitely a good sign moving forward that the cornerstones of Jabari and Giannis, who are known to be working on their shooting from deep, were a combined five-for-nine from out there.
Along with great performances from Jabari (28 points, five rebounds) and the Greek Freak (30 points, 14 rebounds), they were helped out by a near double-double of nine points and nine assists from Matthew Dellavedova and another quality performance from Mirza Teletovic.
As for the Bulls, they were led by Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade, both of whom scored over 20 points. Those two are always dangerous, but it was Taj Gibson, noted Bucks-killer, who arguably had the greatest impact on the game for Chicago, finishing with 19 points on efficient shooting in just 24 minutes.
On the whole, it was a great performance for the Bucks, and hopefully one that they can follow up with another victory against this same squad in the next game. But first, let’s look at how we graded every member of the game.