Deep Sixed: Milwaukee Bucks season crash-lands with blowout loss
By Phil Watson
The Milwaukee Bucks won two straight games against the Chicago Bulls to force a Game 6 at BMO Harris Bradley Center Thursday night.
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But the feel-good story of the NBA season ended abruptly as the Bucks set a franchise record with a 54-point loss. The Bulls closed out their Eastern Conference first-round series with a resounding 120-66 win.
The 66 points were the fewest ever scored by the Bucks in a postseason game, breaking the old mark of 69 points scored in an 83-69 loss to the Atlanta Hawks in Game 6 of an Eastern Conference first-round series on April 30, 2010—five years to the day of Thursday’s loss.
Of course, Thursday also marked the 44th anniversary of the team clinching its only title, wrapping up a four-game sweep of the Baltimore Bullets in the NBA Finals with a 118-106 win at the Baltimore Civic Center.
The team’s previous worst playoff loss was a 132-96 pasting at the hands of the New York Knicks in Game 5 of the Eastern Division Finals on April 20, 1970, at Madison Square Garden.
The Bucks have twice lost by 48 points in the regular season—144-96 to the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City on Jan. 27, 1990, and 152-104 to the Orlando Magic at the Bradley Center on Feb. 20, 1995.
Chicago never took its foot off the accelerator on Thursday, scoring the game’s first eight points and taking its first double-digit lead at 17-6 just 5:42 into the game. Milwaukee briefly cut the deficit back to single digits at 17-8, but after Joakim Noah tipped in a Jimmy Butler miss with six minutes left in the first period, the lead never got below 11 again.
The Bulls led 34-16 at the end of the first quarter, 65-33 at halftime and 91-52 after three periods.
But it shouldn’t take any of the luster off a remarkable turnaround campaign in which the Bucks improved from 15-67 under coach Larry Drew in 2013-14 to 41-41 under Jason Kidd in 2014-15.
“Chicago, you tip your cap to them,” Kidd told ESPN.com. “They came out and jumped on us. We just could never recover from that.”
Indeed, the Bulls played like a team that was annoyed to even have to be in the building for the sixth game of a series they once led 3-0.
But the sting of the blowout shouldn’t deter from the progress made. Giannis Antetokounmpo, who played like a 20-year-old kid in Game 6, scoring just five points on 2-of-6 shooting before he was ejected for a flagrant-2 foul against former Buck Mike Dunleavy late in the first half, had a breakout season in his second year in the league.
Khris Middleton established himself as a legitimate 2-guard. Michael Carter-Williams showed flashes of brilliance after coming over in a trade-deadline deal in February and will benefit from a full offseason and training camp under Kidd’s tutelage.
And then there’s the prospect of No. 2 overall pick Jabari Parker—a contender for Rookie of the Year honors before going down with a season-ending ACL tear in mid-December—returning to a team that went further faster than anyone in the NBA could have anticipated.
“After the game I wanted to congratulate the guys on a great year,” Kidd said. “Not just a great series, but for putting themselves in this position.
“[Now we have to] learn from this situation. I don’t want to say for motivation during the summer, but [for] them to get better. Because they’re not a secret anymore.”
Apr 30, 2015; Milwaukee, WI, USA; A Milwaukee Bucks fan holds up a sign thanking the Milwaukee Bucks owners during the fourth quarter against the Chicago Bulls in game six of the first round of the NBA Playoffs. at BMO Harris Bradley Center. Chicago won 120-66. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Antetokounmpo let his frustration show late in the first half. Dunleavy had jabbed Antetokounmpo in the throat on the Bucks offensive end and then set up on the 3-point line, taking a shot before the Greek Freak tackled Dunleavy, sending him sprawling into the first row.
“It wasn’t very smart,” Kidd said. “We gotta learn from other people’s mistakes. You have to pay attention. He’ll learn from that mistake he made [Thursday night].”
Thursday’s blowout aside, the Bucks went toe-to-toe with the more talented, more experienced Bulls for five games in a playoff series. That’s something to grow from.
But most importantly, the Bucks—after years of drifting along without one—established an identity. Milwaukee goes forward into 2015-16 as a young, gritty team with tremendous length and a tenaciousness on defense.
Let’s not forget the Bucks were second in the NBA in defensive efficiency and led the league in forcing turnovers.
No one reached double figures for Milwaukee Thursday night. Zaza Pachulia was the leading scorer with eight points. Jerryd Bayless had seven points and five assists. The Bucks were outscored in the paint 50-20, by 22-5 on second-chance opportunities and 22-6 on the fast break.
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By contrast, all five Chicago starters finished in double-figured, led by Dunleavy’s 20 points. Pau Gasol had 19, Butler 16, Derrick Rose 15 and Noah finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
To put it another way, the Bulls had 31 assists. The Bucks had 25 baskets.
Yeah, it was that kind of a night.
But it was most decidedly not that kind of a season and Milwaukee fans can enter the offseason with something that has been in short supply around this franchise for decades.
Hope.