Getty Grayson Allen #7 of the Milwaukee Bucks is defended by Coby White #0 of the Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls need not look any further than their opponent, the Milwaukee Bucks, for a solution to at least one of their woes, suggests 670 The Score’s Cody Westerlund.
There is nothing worse than your arch-rival continuously getting the best of you, as Bulls fans found during their 0-4 regular season versus Milwaukee and through four games of their first-round series.
They have seen a narrow defeat in Game 1 followed by a four-point win in Game 2. which was followed by back-to-back losses of 30 and 24 points in Games 3 and 4.
Their “Big Three” combined for 58 points on 44.2% shooting in their 119-95 Game 4 loss spearheaded by Zach LaVine’s 24-point, 13-assist double-double. It was his second double-double of the postseason. The trio especially struggled from beyond the arc going a combined 3-of-17 including 0-for-5 from DeMar DeRozan.
The Bulls are now 1-3 when DeRozan has attempted at least five threes in a game between the regular and postseason.
You know what this #Bulls bench could really use?
A Grayson Allen.
Say Hi to the Bad Guy
Grayson Allen has been on fire over the last two games, shooting 75% from the floor including 11-of-14 triples. He has outscored everyone on the Bulls over that span despite being the current public enemy number one in Chicago after his foul on Alex Caruso knocked the Bulls’ guard out from January 23rd to March 12.
Zach LaVine on Grayson Allen’s big games after what happened during regular season with Alex Caruso: “You gotta give him credit. He’s hitting shots. Obviously, we know what happened. At the end of the day, it’s basketball.”
Caruso left Sunday’s Game 4 to be evaluated for a concussion, per NBC Sports Chicago’s Rob Schaefer, after taking an inadvertent backhand from Jevon Carter — a Chicago-area native — while going for the ball.
The Bulls have shot just 23.4% from deep this series in their three losses, per Stathead.com. They hit 12-of-25 in their Game 2 victory on April 20.
Zach LaVine on the fact that Grayson Allen is the player hurting the Bulls the most in the last two games: “It’s not like we’re saying, ‘That guy can’t beat us.’ The Milwaukee Bucks can’t beat us.”
It’s not just Allen adding salt to the Bulls’ wounds, though. Former Bulls forward Bobby Portis has also had a nice series as well outside of that Game 2 Bulls win. He left that contest early with an eye abrasion suffered on a Tristan Thompson elbow while going for a rebound.
Portis had 14 points and 10 rebounds giving him a double-double in every game he has finished.
At one point, while getting booed by Bulls fans, Portis pointed to his ring finger letting the faithful know the score. It is just the kind of ribbing you expect from a competitor such as Portis who once punched teammate Nikola Mirotic while a member of the Bulls.
He also got into a minor dust-up with LaVine late in the fourth quarter.
A Step Further
Portis hit 6-of-13 triples across the first two Bucks wins but just 1-of-4 in the third victory. Even blaming their poor rotations amid Allen’s three-point shooting is oversimplifying the Bulls’ issue a bit. They simply lacked the requisite firepower to keep up with the defending champs.
Yes, their top players haven’t performed as hoped.
But their job has been made infinitely tougher by the fact that no one on their bench has proven capable of taking some of the pressure off.
Have to assume this is one of the last games of Coby White’s Bulls career.
Coby White has been abysmal since scoring 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting in Game 1. He had just two points on 1-of-5 shooting in Game 4 including going 0-for-3 from deep and played fewer than 13 minutes as Billy Donovan opted for rookie Ayo Dosunmu even as Caruso went down.
White is supposed to be the Bulls’ top scoring threat off of the bench when this team is completely healthy.
More than just White, the Bulls do not have the kind of specialists or certainly the experience that the Bucks do on the bench outside of Thompson who is a team-worst minus-43.3 in this postseason, per NBA.com.
Javonte Green didn’t even see six minutes while Derrick Jones Jr had just five points in over 13 minutes but both have been their most consistent reserves outside of a healthy Caruso.
The Future
Who knows what will happen with White or Vucevic – who had just 11 points 35.7% shooting with 10 rebounds. The real question will be Patrick Williams who was the Bulls’ second-best player by the numbers.
He had 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting with 10 rebounds while going 3-of-6 from downtown.
The question will be how much stock to put into it with most of the production coming in the second half with the Bulls trailing big.
There has been a lot of outside discussion over what the Bulls will do with White, Williams, and Vucevic. One has to wonder how their respective performances are affecting that or the Bulls’ thinking going forward.