The Milwaukee Bucks overwhelmed the Chicago Bulls 116-100 last morning, with 33 points from the Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo, and sentenced the first round series of the ‘playoffs’ with an authoritarian 4-1, to meet the Boston Celtics in the semifinals of the NBA Eastern Conference. The Bucks had no mercy on a Bulls without Zach LaVine or Alex Caruso and easily beat them, pushed by Giannis who had 33 points, scoring his first seven shots, with nine rebounds and three assists.
The defending champions will fight in the Eastern semifinals against the Celtics who crushed the Brooklyn Nets 4-0, after imposing their physical and technical power on the Bulls, whose season ended definitively at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. Without Khris Middleton, out due to a ligament problem in his left knee and a serious doubt for the start of the series with the Celtics, it was Pat Connaughton who was in charge of shooting from the three-point line. He hit six of nine and finished with twenty points. Bobby Portis was one of the architects of the Bucks’ dominance in the paint and had fourteen points and 17 rebounds. The Spanish Serge Ibaka played seven minutes and grabbed two rebounds, without scoring points.
In the Bulls, DeMar DeRozan was annulled and did not exceed eleven points. The best was Patrick Williams, with 23 points and nine of thirteen shots. The Bucks did not miss the opportunity to sentence the Bulls and they did it with a forceful start, in which they doubled at 20-10 and finished the first quarter with a 16-point lead at 34-18.
29 POINTS OF MARGIN IN THE SECOND QUARTER. With an aggressive defense on DeRozan, Chicago’s only source of play in the face of LaVine’s loss, Billy Donovan’s men went more than four minutes without scoring in the second period and the Bucks mercilessly overwhelmed them to the rhythm of an Antetokounmpo who had and 23 points and six rebounds.
The Bucks’ lead touched 29 points when Giannis gave Matthews the assist for the 3-pointer to make it 49-20 and only a partial loosening up of Budenholzer’s men kept the size of the humiliation from growing any further.
The Bulls, despite the fact that DeRozan did not exceed four points in the second period, finished the fourth with a 22-11 run that cut the margin to 18 points (60-42).
A good start in the third quarter allowed the Bulls to reduce the margin to eleven points, when Dosunmu converted an additional free kick for 55-66, and Vucevic had in his hands the triple that could really reopen the fight, but he missed it.
At that moment, the few options for the Bulls were definitely over, against a Bucks that, guided by nine points from Giannis and eight from Bobby Portis, closed the quarter with a 25-13 for 91-68 that converted the last twelve minutes of I meet in a hallway.
Antetokounmpo only played four minutes in the final period, in which Connaughton, with two of his six triples of the night, maintained the comfortable advantage of the Bucks and accompanied his team to the victory that gave them the ticket for the next round.
a high voltage crossover with two very physical teams. The Bucks will play the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Celtics, who thrashed the Brooklyn Nets 4-0 in the first-round series, ending a hard-fought season for Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
The two franchises shared wins in the four regular-season matchups, with the home team always coming out on top. They are two very physical teams in which defense is an important factor.
The Celtics will come out with home court advantage in this series, having finished ahead of the Bucks in the regular season. They also came out very strong from the crossing with the Nets. In the 2019 Conference semifinals, the Bucks won.
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