Returning from their three-game road swing, the Milwaukee Bucks will open up 2021 by hosting their I-94 rival in the Chicago Bulls Friday night at Fiserv Forum.
There’s no place like home and that will prove true for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Coming off a road trip that saw them split a pair of games with the Miami Heat and take on an ugly 20-point loss from the New York Knicks, the Bucks return home to host the Chicago Bulls at Fiserv Forum for their first game of the new year.
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The start of a five-game homestand, the Bucks will look to do some home cooking on their I-94 rival and establish some consistency after going 2-3 through their first five games.
Chicago, meanwhile, are coming off of their first and second wins of the season, both of which came over the Washington Wizards, and are on the second night of a back-to-back.
So without further ado, let’s dive into the three biggest things to watch for when the Milwaukee Bucks open up their season series against the Chicago Bulls Friday night.
A new chapter in the I-94 rivalry between the Milwaukee Bucks and Chicago Bulls
While the Bucks’ offseason was filled with great change, the Bulls’ was anything but.
To that point, the Bulls ranked second in returning minutes year over year at 89 percent as Kris Dunn and Shaq Harrison stood as their biggest departures on the roster. Mainly, Chicago’s biggest shakeups from their extended offseason was institutional.
While the Bulls had hired Arturas Karnisovas from the Denver Nuggets and installed him as their nice vice president of basketball operations during the league’s shutdown, it took more than enough of time for him to address their head coach situation. Eventually, Jim Boylen’s time ran out as he punched his ticket out of town in August.
For as long as that dragged out, the Bulls certainly swooped in to pick up Billy Donovan after his five-year reign with the Oklahoma City Thunder came to an end following their playoff run down in the bubble.
With this being the first year of an entirely new regime down in Chicago, Donovan and Karnisovas’ vision to build out the team to their liking will be an interesting watch. That also means their could be some bumps along the way as their start to the season has shown.