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Bucks win Game 5 in United Center 94-88

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Apr 28

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Well, it looks like the Milwaukee Bucks got the Bulls attention.

“It’s definitely a challenge; got to give credit to the Bucks, their spirit, how they are competing, how they are giving themselves a chance,” Pau Gasol agreed after the Bucks Monday pulled within 3-2 in this first round playoff series with a convincing 94-88 victory in the United Center. “We have a very difficult challenge in front of us. They have momentum, they have confidence and they are going home to force Game 7. So let’s see how we react to the situation as a team.

“I don’t know if we were overlooking them,” said Gasol. “I think we did not play enough with that sense of urgency and desire which you need to do to close out a team when you have them in that position; we’re going to have to do better, play the next game like it is the last game. Don’t think about, ‘If we lose this one we still have a chance and can play at home for Game 7.’ That would be a terrible mistake; that’s why I say it’s a challenge, an opportunity for this team to grow individually and collectively and see what we are made of.”

Suddenly, an encouraging playoff path that seemed clear and fortuitous for the Bulls with a 3-0 start to the series and two starters from rival Cleveland, Kevin Love and J.R. Smith, out at least the first two games of the conference semifinals, has become a detour and perhaps a bridge to nowhere.

As Satchel Paige once stated eloquently, “Don’t look back, something may be gaining on you.”

Who knew it could be a Buck.

The Bulls thought they were out of season.

“Like Thibs said our last game we lost in Milwaukee he told us, ‘You can’t give them life. You’ve got to take their breath away,’” related Taj Gibson. “We failed to do that in that game in Milwaukee. I guess we thought it was going to be a cakewalk today. The way we started the game off down nine right away I knew we were in for a long dogfight. That team played with a lot more confidence; their young players were playing, finishing at the rim late in the game. We gave them life. Now we have to push the issue, get ready for the next game and play the way we are capable of playing.

“I’m not surprised,” added Gibson, “If you give a team life like that they’re going to come back and bite you. That team is talented. When you give guys confidence and give them life the way we did in Milwaukee, they are going to come out playing with more self esteem.”

The Bulls got a game high 25 points and 10 rebounds from Gasol and 20 points from Jimmy Butler. But Butler and Derrick Rose combined to shoot 10 for 41, the Bulls 34.4 percent overall and 18.2 percent on threes. Rose and Butler had 10 shots blocked combined. Significantly, the less renowned Bucks backcourt outplayed the Bulls’ as Michael Carter-Williams had 22 points, nine assists and eight rebounds and Khris Middleton added 21 points.

The Bucks outrebounded the Bulls 48-45 despite frequently using smaller lineups. Joakim Noah had his best and most active game in weeks with 10 points, 13 rebounds, six assists and three blocks, a series best nine offensive rebounds as his passion showed the game’s urgency. But Noah missed both his free throws and is a shocking zero for eight on free throws in the series, the Bulls well below their season average at 71 percent from the line. The Bulls sharply reduced their turnovers from the 28 in Game 4 to 13. But the Bucks easily outscored them inside and continued to baffle the Bulls with their quickness that’s made the Bulls feel they’re playing against seven players.

“It’s the trap,” said Rose. “Two or three people guarding you, there’s no where to go when you are on the floor.”

The Bulls know they’re better and should win. Everyone agrees. But with Game 6 in Milwaukee Thursday, it suddenly becomes one game to avoid the pressure of a seventh game at home to perhaps become the first team in NBA history to blow a 3-0 playoff series lead.

It’s not the sort of history the Bulls believed they would be making this season.

“We believe that we can beat this team, and we felt that we shouldn’t be going home right now,” said Middleton.

“Last time I checked you’ve just got to get four,” noted Mike Dunleavy, who was scoreless with just three shots and surprisingly sat out most of the second half. “We’ve got to get one more game. That’s how you advance in this tournament and we are optimistic we can do that Thursday.

“You can look at it a bunch of different ways,” said Dunleavy. “They could be up 3-2. They had two shots to win in Game 3 up there. The reality is we’re 3-2 in our favor and we’ve just got to get one game to get the series. I think we’re still a confident group, go in and work on things to improve tomorrow and go up there feeling good about ourselves going into Thursday expecting to win.”

At least they have their health.

Which makes it all the more disappointing.

This is as healthy as the team has been all season with everyone available to play and no restrictions on anyone. Yet, it’s remained a tight rotation with the Bulls being the ones unable to finish games, the Bucks flummoxing them with their speed and trapping and double teaming the Bulls have yet to figure out.

Just who are those guys?

All of this has led to some jarring introspection on the part of Bulls players. It’s not uncommon when you are facing death, that being the potential death of a season that seemed so viable just days ago, hours ago.

“We were always a team with an edge, understanding our defense was first,” said Gibson. “It’s sad to see other teams are getting us the same way. I think we have the edge when we turn it on. At times we think we’re a little bit too good. You look at how our team is made up the last couple of years we were defensive minded first. We didn’t really worry about scoring the ball; we relied on our defense and getting out in transition. Now we have so many different weapons at times we tend to think we’re going to come back. It’s good to have that kind of feeling knowing we can come back and push the issue late. When we want to play we are a dominant team. I think as time goes on we have to get tight again; get frustrated and get tired of losing games like this.”

“Definitely, inconsistency is not a good sign and we have been inconsistent for several reasons throughout the season and we haven’t been very consistent in this series,” noted Gasol. “So we’ve just to focus on Game 6 and bring our best effort, our best energy to win that game. And forget about everything else; just do what we need to do to win.”

“I think our intensity has been up and down all year,” Noah pointed out. “That’s kind of uncharacteristic of who we are and that’s why we are in this situation right now. But we know to beat this team we’re going to have to put in a better effort than we have the last couple of games.”

The Bulls are who we thought they were, which basically is a team we have no idea who they are.

We’ve seen this all season, big wins against the best teams, one of two teams to win in Golden State, over the Cavs, Grizzlies in Memphis, Clippers in L.A., over the Spurs, Rockets and Mavs. And then losses to the Magic twice, Pistons twice, Hornets twice, Lakers, Jazz, Kings. The problem may be they don’t even seem to know who they are.

Butler was cruising along through this series, fourth in playoff scoring at more than 28 per game and played a stinker, hunting shots all game as he was five of 21, though his overall effort was intense with 10 rebounds, six assists, four steals and a classic run down block. But he let Middleton, O.J. Mayo, a new United Center nemesis, and Giannis Antetokounmpo beat him to the basket.

“I’m supposed to be the prime time defensive guy,” said Butler, who got into some severe trash talking with Antetokounmpo during the game, telling him he was locking him up, which Bucks players mocked after the game. “I haven’t been guarding; been worried about offense too much. I need to change that quickly or it’s going to be my fault.

“We missed shots tonight, myself, Derrick,” said Butler. “That happens. We can’t guard the way we guarded and expect to win. It starts with myself and him to be the leaders on the defensive end; we set the tone from the beginning it will be that tone for the rest of the game. We are confident we are a good team; we are going to show it the next game. We haven’t done it, but I am confident we will. They just played harder than we did on both ends of the floor. End of story.”

The story is just beginning in what was expected to be a warm up that’s become a series. And one now with no decided edge for either team.

Because the same issues the Bulls have had all series continued in Game 5 and no one seemed to have any answers.

The Bucks trapped Rose on the pick and roll and doubled Gasol in the post. The Bulls were supposed to rotate the ball, tried with Dunleavy in the first two possessions of the game. He missed and they basically didn’t try again. The Bulls were supposed to take advantage of their size inside and did in the first quarter when Gibson kept powering over Jared Dudley and the Bulls took a 21-13 lead after falling behind 9-0 to start the game.

But again the Bulls went away from it and Gibson played just eight minutes in the second half and had three shots after eight points in six minutes in the first half. The rotations were strange with Tony Snell playing the entire fourth quarter and going scoreless with three shots. The Bulls were seven of 30 in the fourth quarter and zero for five on threes.

The Bulls were again slow to get into their offense, walking the ball up frequently, which again enabled the Bucks to set their defense as the Bulls called out play after play. Conversely, despite the Bulls’ two athletes in their backcourt, they hardly pressed the Bucks and allowed them to get where they wanted. The Bucks in pushing the ball without many play calls seemed to delight in their freedom moving the ball. You wonder watching Carter-Williams how the 76ers decided they are going to do a lot better.

“Just got to move the ball quick, make quicker decisions and tonight the shots weren’t falling. They looked good but they weren’t falling,” said Rose.

“We didn’t get into what we wanted to do until late in the shot clock,” said Dunleavy. “It sort of plays into their hands, didn’t get the ball moved side to side. That’s what they want. They’re pressuring the ball so we can’t get it up quicker. You start going (into your offense) with seven, eight seconds on the shot clock….They have a bunch of long guys who can turn you over and it plays into their hands.”

“They’ve really been jumping on us early,” noted Gibson. “They were taking a lot of tough shots, making them. Zaza (Pachilia) hit a couple of real crazy shots. Both teams are really duking it out. They executed late. I don’t know why people expect you to just beat someone on pure talent; it comes down to will, to making shots at the right time and they made shots at the right time with tough coverage. We’re trying to take advantage of mismatches. J Kidd is making a lot of great adjustments.”

“They made solid adjustments of putting shooting all around and causing problems,” said Noah. “I think we just have to come together and be ready to go.”

Maybe the Bulls were looking ahead to a potentially weakened Cleveland team; maybe they thought being at home would be enough; maybe they figured their talent would eventually wear down the Bucks. So now they and we get to see who they are and what they are made of. They’ve had plenty of opportunities, get two days off now before Game 6 in Milwaukee, where the Bulls play to often friendly crowds with a strong northern Illinois influence. The Bucks have yet to accept, however, they are the foils.

Mayo got personal with the crowd as they were taunting him, offering his own obscene gesture that probably gets a fine. But it also showed the Bucks were hardly intimidated. They took a 52-49 halftime lead in a second quarter with Mayo and Butler jawing at one another and face to face often and drawing double technical fouls. The Bulls rose up a bit in trying to imitate the Bucks tactics by trying to strip the ball on the interior drives, though the Bucks kept driving and moving the ball as their coach once did as a star player.

Noah seemed revived playing like he did last season on the boards and Gasol got going from the outside in the third quarter. The Bucks, nevertheless, pulled ahead 67-58 with Gasol screaming “defense!” at teammates. Carter-Williams went down with a sprained ankle in the third, but would return and be a major fourth quarter factor taking Rose to the basket.

The Bulls paraded to the free throw line late in the third with the aggressive Bucks in the penalty. But the Bucks continued to answer playing their small shooters in Mayo, Dudley and Middleton and running the Bulls all over the court. The Bucks led 76-70 after three.

“Whenever they play their small bigs we have to find a way to get Pau or Jo or our bigs the ball so they can make a play inside the paint,” said Rose. “Whenever Jo is out there they are giving him a lot of room; they are helping. So he has to look at the basket and look to score the ball.”

Thibodeau went extensively with Snell and Nikola Mirotic in the fourth quarter; neither scored in a combined 20 minutes as Dunleavy sat and Gibson played just three minutes in a curiosity.

It seemed the Bulls might come back as Butler drew a foul on a jumper for a three-point play, signaling good as he lay on the floor and Noah followed that with a tip in to get the Bulls within 80-77 with 8:35 left. But stringy John Henson repeatedly beat Bulls to the boards for 10 fourth quarter rebounds. After the Bucks went back ahead 86-77, Rose hit a pair of jumpers and Gasol added another to bring the Bulls within 86-83 with 4:45 left. But Carter-Williams drove for a score.

“He got a lot of tough shots, shots he hit I tried not to foul,” said Rose. “I had my arms up and he kept banking it. It’s the first game he hit that many shots; tough shots, but he made it. So make an adjustment.”

Henson slammed in a miss and converted a layup around the Bulls for an eight-point lead with just over two minutes left.

The stunned home crowd began departing amidst a smattering of boos.

“I’ve never been in a position where when you are up 3-0 then you are up 3-2,” said Gasol. “When you have opportunities to close a series and put a team away you have to take advantage of it; we haven’t done that yet, so again it’s a challenge, a test for us to see how we are going to handle this and play in Game 6; it will be critical to see what we do in our next game.”

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