The Milwaukee Bucks got their preseason off with a hard-fought win over divisional rivals, the Chicago Bulls, on Sunday. Milwaukee opted to rest their stars in this one, but they were still able to secure a thrilling 105-102 win over their opponents.
After the game, head coach Adrian Griffin had nothing but good things to say about his team’s strong performance in their preseason debut.
Milwaukee Bucks Showed Composure
This also happened to be Griffin’s first official game in charge after the Bucks hired him as their new head coach a few months back. According to the rookie coach, he had a lot of positive takeaways from Sunday’s win:
“This is good training ground,” he said. “Every game, you gotta be able to execute on both sides of the ball. You gotta keep your poise. We had I think around six-, seven-point lead going into the fourth quarter at the end, and they kept chipping away, chipping away. You gotta be able to keep your poise. Team are gonna make runs. And I thought our young guys did that. They didn’t panic. It’s a good lesson.”
Milwaukee pushed the tempo to start the fourth quarter, and it resulted in the home team taking a 90-84 lead in the final frame. Chicago would not back down, though, and the Bulls were able to tie the game with just half a minute remaining.
As Griffin said, however, the Bucks showed their compousre in this one as they held off Chicago to close out the game to secure a victory.
Young Guys Stepped It Up
Griffin gave a lot of credit to his young players in this one. MarJon Beauchamp stole the show on Sunday, coming off the bench for a game-high 18 points on 5-of-11 shooting, nine rebounds, and three asissts in a team-high 28 minutes of action. It was also Beachuamp’s clutch free throws in the dying seconds that sealed the win for the Bucks.
Coach Griffin also talked up rookie Andre Jackson Jr.’s role in the win, noting how the 21-year-old exhibited his presence of mind late in the game:
“Andre came up to me after the and-one … he said, ‘Hey, I probably should have let him go.’ I said, ‘You probably should,'” Griffin recalled. “He’s a smart guy. He knows the last thing you want is to give a three-point play. So he’s out there thinking.
“This is great teaching but it’s also meaningful as far as you want to be on the winning side of these games. As a coach you get to reinforce some of the positive and good behavior that you saw.”
Griffin ended by sending a strong message to his new-look squad ahead of what is surely going to be a challenging campaign ahead:
“We got a lot of talent but we gotta stick together through thick and thin,” he said.
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