MILWAUKEE — DeMar DeRozan made sure the Chicago Bulls changed their painful recent history against the Milwaukee Bucks and gave that first-round streak a fresh start.
Now it’s defending champion Bucks who’s suddenly in pain as the tied teams travel to Chicago.
DeRozan posted a career playoff-high 41 points in Game 2 Wednesday night and the Bulls outlived the Bucks 114-110. Nikola Vucevic added 24 points and 13 rebounds while Zach LaVine had 20 points as the sixth-ranked Bulls beat the third. Seeded Bucks for the second time in their last 19 meetings.
“No matter what you did in the regular season, this is a brand new start and a new mindset,” DeRozan said. “You could see it in all the guys. It doesn’t matter if we lost 20 times against these guys. This is an opportunity for us to measure ourselves. We have to take advantage of that.”
The big question now is what form the Bucks will be in if that streak resumes on Friday.
Bobby Portis left the game with a right eye scrape after the first quarter and Khris Middleton went out at 6:49 after his left leg gave out trying to make a turning move.
Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said after the game that Middleton has a sprained medial collateral ligament and will have an MRI Thursday.
“He’s always been positive and he knows the type of team we are and how resilient we are,” Bucks guard Jrue Holiday said. “We just want him to come back as soon as possible and be healthy so he can come here and help us win games.”
Budenholzer said Portis “should be fine with some time”.
Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 33 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists, earning him an assist from his second career playoff triple-double. Antetokounmpo increased his postseason career tally to 1,715 points to overtake Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1,692) for the most in Bucks history.
Brook Lopez had 25 points for the Bucks. Middleton scored 18 and Holiday 15.
DeRozan scored eight points during a 13-0 run that started late in the third quarter and put the Bulls 96-80 ahead with 9:47 left. The Bulls still led by 15 before Milwaukee rallied in the final 7 1/2 minutes.
Lopez converted a three-point play to reduce Chicago’s lead to 112-109 with 56 seconds remaining.
“We expected these guys to make a run,” Vucevic said. “They are a championship team for a reason. They’ve been there before, so we expected them to run away.”
But after Alex Caruso and Vucevic got offensive rebounds on the Bulls’ ensuing possession, DeRozan’s drive-on hit 114-109 with 18.2 seconds left.
Chicago rebounded from a 93-86 Game 1 loss and continued to show the courage that had been lacking late in the regular season, especially when the Bulls faced top teams.
The Bulls have lost 15 of their last 22 regular-season games. During the regular season, the Bulls only went 2-21 against the top four seeds in each conference.
“I think maybe playing against some of these higher-ranked teams at the end of the year somehow toughened us up and helped us grow,” said Bulls coach Billy Donovan. “It helped us get better. It helped us to have that kind of mentality that we have to move on to the next track. I think this year when we were playing against good teams, when it started going a little the other way, we didn’t have enough strength to bring it back our way.”
Chicago ended the second quarter on a 15-4 run and secured a 65-4 halftime advantage.
The Bulls extended the lead to 18 early in the third quarter before the Bucks caught up with a small lineup featuring Antetokounmpo, Middleton and reserve guards Grayson Allen, Pat Connaughton and Jevon Carter.
Milwaukee put on a 15-2 sprint to cut the Bulls’ lead to three late in the third period. But the Bulls responded with 13 straight points and stayed ahead on the reset.
“We made a good run but in the last minute of the third quarter I thought we could have done better and then when we came out of the fourth quarter another big swing,” said Budenholzer. “We dug some big holes.”
TIP INS
Bulls: After posting a season-low 32.3% and hitting 7-of-37 from 3-point range in a 93-86 loss in Game 1, the Bulls shot 49.4% and went 12-of-25 from beyond of the bow Wednesday. DeRozan, LaVine and Vucevic shot 21-of-71 and 4-of-22 in Game 1 from 3-point range. They were 33-of-62 overall and 7-of-14 on 3-point attempts in Game 2. …Caruso had 10 assists that came with nine points. … Patrick Williams had 10 points and nine rebounds.
Bucks: George Hill missed a third straight game with an abdominal strain. Budenholzer said ahead of Game 2 that Hill is not expected back in the near term and that the team will be monitoring how the 35-year-old Hill guard is doing over the next “several days or more”… The Bucks had 15 turnovers to take their series total to 36 raise.
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