Thursday night at the United Center, the Milwaukee Bucks played with a bit too much fire, and the dismal Chicago Bulls defeated them, 120-113, in overtime.
The Bucks (13-6) overcame a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter to grab a three-point advantage in the closing seconds; however, the Bulls forced overtime and outplayed the visitors in the extra session.
Bucks guard Malik Beasley stated, “I think it came down to execution on both ends.” “I believe we gave ourselves several opportunities to win the game by coming back.” It’s difficult to sustain that level of energy when you’re exerting so much, especially over time. Therefore, we must remain united and take lessons from it.
The Bucks were led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, who finished the half with just four points off three shots. Although Damian Lillard only scored one point and failed to make a basket in the second half, he finished with eighteen points on seven of sixteen shots. With thirteen assists, he led the team.
20 points were scored by Brook Lopez on 7 of 12 shots, including 6 threes. For the Bucks, Beasley (19 points) also scored in double figures.
“We didn’t play to our best of abilities,” Antetokounmpo remarked. “It wasn’t our greatest performance. We weren’t worthy winners of the match. You know what I mean when I say that occasionally the basketball gods oversee the game? I believe Chicago outperformed us in all areas of the game—defense, execution, ball movement, and play intensity. Thus, they were more deserving of the game than we were.
You know that we can’t always rely on our talent? There are some games that we play with utmost intensity; we play for the full 48 minutes and position ourselves to win, you know? And occasionally, despite all of that, you lose the game. However, I don’t believe we set ourselves up to succeed today.
“I believe we were merely tinkering with the game. Additionally, you may lose when using the game.
Reasons for not fouling on Alex Caruso’s game-winning three-pointer by the Bucks
With 5.2 seconds remaining in regulation and the Bucks leading 106-103, the Bulls called a timeout to set up an inbound play. Head coach Adrian Griffin of the Bucks stated in the Milwaukee huddle that his team shouldn’t foul a Bulls player unless his back is to the basket during the catch. Alex Caruso eventually made a game-tying, 28-foot three-pointer over Brook Lopez to send the game into overtime. The team did not foul during the play.
At halfcourt, Bulls center Nikola Vučević grabbed the inbound pass close to the team’s logo. He then turned to face Lopez, took a dribble, and passed the ball to Caruso. Because the Bucks were switching one-through-five, Lopez slid out on the Bulls’ guard while Beasley hung back on Vučević.
“Well, with 5 seconds – ideally, my philosophy is 5 seconds, around that 5-second mark – what I told the team was if they catch it with their back toward the basket, foul,” Griffin said in the post-game interview explaining his choice. They managed to catch it a bit later. I’m responsible for that. If they had caught it that far out as well, we need to have fouled instead of allowing them a chance to tie the game. It becomes a little trickier when you get to the 5-second mark and under because you don’t want to foul them as they’re shooting. At the cutoff point, that was kind of there. Once more, I was to blame. We had the chance to commit a foul. It did show up. I was unsure if it would come up, but I informed them that it is often foul play if they catch the ball with their back to the hoop.
Lopez: “It’s true that I had a chance to foul.” I might have fouled “Vooch.” I didn’t. “AC” put on a strong play. It was a possibility, no doubt. inside the triangle (-point line). It was a little different outside the three, but I should have just played a heads-up. I have sufficient experience to be aware of that.”
Beasley: “I personally believe that we should have fouled. It was something we had discussed, but only with his back to the hoop. However, it’s a difficult shot. To be honest, I believe we should have simply fouled. We as players need to be aware of it, especially because we could have fouled when Vučević had his back to us.”
“You don’t really know what’s the best thing to do, but at the end of the day we got to that position and we didn’t have to be in that position, in my opinion,” Antetokounmpo said, adding that coaches have different ideas at that particular time.
“If you look at the entire game, we did not deserve to win this game,” he continued. We just didn’t play very well. We showed no regard for the game. We had moments when we played well and were able to tie the game, but ultimately, in my opinion, we didn’t need to be in that circumstance.
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