After leading for the majority of Monday night’s matchup against the Chicago Bulls, the Milwaukee Bucks were supposed to comfortably bring home the victory against their Central Division rivals. The Bulls, however, had other plans, as they pushed the home team all the way to the edge in what turned out to be a back-and-forth encounter between two unrelenting teams.
In the end, however, it was Milwaukee who prevailed in overtime, 133-129.
Milwaukee Bucks HC Adrian Griffin Speaks Out on Win
It was Milwaukee’s performance in overtime that set them apart in this one. After allowing the Bulls to crawl their way back to tie the game in the fourth quarter — and eventually force OT — it was the Bucks who came out firing in the extra period.
Milwaukee stepped it up on the defensive end when it mattered the most. They held down Chicago to just 3-of-14 shooting in overtime, which included an uncontested DeMar DeRozan dunk in the dying seconds.
Bucks head coach Adrian Griffin lauded his team’s ability to shift to another gear defensively in OT:
“We switched up our matchups, our lineups a little bit, tried to take them off rhythm just a little bit,” Griffin said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I thought the Bulls played a terrific game. Every time we thought we had ‘em down they kind of fought and clawed back in the game. But, when we needed to get stops, we got stops. So that was encouraging.”
As Griffin said, the Bulls deserve a lot of credit for fighting their way back in this one and producing the very best out of their opponents — especially considering how both Zach LaVine and Alex Caruso were unable to suit up due to respective injuries.
The Bucks will take this important win, though, as not only do they get the Bulls back for their overtime loss in Chicago in late November, but Giannis Antetokounmpo and Co. are now back to winning ways after their gutting semifinal loss to the Indiana Pacers in the NBA In-Season Tournament.
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