3 things to watch in Milwaukee Bucks first matchup against Chicago Bulls

The Milwaukee Bucks should have no problem against the Chicago Bulls defense

Coming into the season, the main concern that a lot of people who were skeptical of the Bulls had was their defense. Three of their stars — DeRozan, LaVine, and Vucevic — aren’t known for their defensive ability.

They’re not as bad at that end as people anticipated, sitting 19th in defensive rating at 109.9 but it’s been their recent defensive efforts that should cause concern for Bulls fans while giving confidence to Bucks fans.

In their last 15 games, the Bulls are 25th in defensive rating at 115.6 which includes all but one game from their recent nine-game win streak. They have been able to outscore teams because of their great offensive talent, but after losing their second-leading scorer (LaVine) and a guard that is shooting over 42 percent from 3 on high volume (Ball), they haven’t been able to keep up offensively anymore.

In their last five games (where they’ve gone 1-4), they have the league’s worst defensive rating at 126.1. They gave up 138 points to both the Brooklyn Nets and Golden State Warriors, so there shouldn’t be much of a challenge for the Bucks.

The Bucks’ big three should have no issues getting to their spots on offense, especially getting inside where Vucevic is a less-than-stellar rim protector.

Even if they had their two stars, it would have been a difficult task for the Bulls to guard the Bucks, but now they won’t even have the horses to potentially keep up offensively.