The Milwaukee Bucks suffered another tough fourth-quarter loss to open their season — a 125-132 battle with the Chicago Bulls in their first home game of the year. While the rest of the city floods the streets to catch the start of the Brewers' World Series game, it's back to business for most of the Bucks, who are headed to Philly for the second leg of a back-to-back on Saturday.
Despite the outcome, head coach Taylor Jenkins was far from discouraged by his team's performance. In his postgame press conference, he noted that his team needs to do a better job of staying out of foul trouble and managing the glass, but the individual performances gave Milwaukee something to build upon.
Here are the biggest lessons the Bucks can take from their loss in the 2026-27 home opener.
1. Tyler Herro is the engine that will make or break the Bucks' offense.
If you drafted Tyler Herro for your fantasy team, you can rejoice. The Hometown Herro is exactly as advertised, putting up 34 points, five rebounds, and four assists in about 31 minutes in his Milwaukee Bucks home debut. The Bucks' new star hit clutch shot after clutch shot to keep the Bucks alive through Chicago's second-half onslaught, proving once again that Milwaukee's scoring potential is limitless when he's playing his best.
TYLER HERRO BACK-TO-BACK CLUTCH THREES! pic.twitter.com/nwj6N7AZ57
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) October 23, 2026
But if he gets caught struggling? It's hard to imagine the Bucks mustering enough offense to keep up with their competition.
2. Brace yourself... Milwaukee is shooting a ton of threes this year.
It would be shocking if Milwaukee were anything but one of the highest-volume 3-point shooting teams in the league this year, putting up 46 of them in their second game after taking 41 in Game 1. While some were forced, many of these threes were generated with selfless ball movement and a clear emphasis on a drive-and-kick style that benefits many of the Bucks' sharpshooting specialists.
3. Fourth quarters might be a problem for these young Bucks.
The fourth quarter was a real problem for everyone not named Tyler Herro in this one. They were outscored 30-21 in the final quarter of play, winding up on the wrong side of some 50-50 balls while comitting more fouls than they'd like to admit.
In his postgame remarks, Jenkins told Dairyland Express that this is "part of our journey right now" and that "it starts with me."
This marks two games in a row where Milwaukee could've won, but failed on the margins despite strong shooting and excellent offensive output. The good thing is, they have 80 more games to learn from their early mistakes and put the pieces together.
4. Milwaukee is operating with a that pace we haven't seen in years.
Jenkins also told Dairyland Express that the blistering pace we saw from this team was completely by design, so we can fairly expect the Bucks to be operating at a speed we haven't seen from them in many years.
"When we're at our best, these guys are going to be playing fast and free, kinda self-organizing out there," Jenkins said.
Not only did the Bucks move quickly up and down the floor, but they forced the Bulls to play at their pace instead of the other way around. While that might not sound like a big deal, this is something they struggled with mightily in the Doc Rivers era. So while the outcome of these two games is far from what the Bucks were hoping for, the seeds have been planted for a bright future.
Add us as a preferred source on Google