The Milwaukee Bucks made it five in a row on Friday night with a decisive 113-97 win over the Chicago Bulls. It was far from an easy win, though, with Chicago challenging their Central Division rivals with their physicality and grit.
The contest produced one ejection (Nikola Vucevic), a handful of flagrant fouls, and multiple heated incidents between two unrelenting sides. For their part, you just knew that the Bucks weren’t going to back down from the challenge.
Doc Rivers Vocal on Milwaukee Bucks’ ‘Instigators’
Bucks head coach Doc Rivers was pleased with his team’s performance in the game. Not only with the way they secured a crucial win against the Bulls but also, with how they pushed just the right amount of buttons:
“We have instigators, for sure,” Rivers admitted after the game, via Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “But it’s only good if you can do that and you don’t get caught up into it. And I thought tonight was right on the edge, and then we backed off.”
A perfect example of what Coach Doc was talking about here is the incident involving Bobby Portis and DeMar DeRozan. The Bucks big man got on DeRozan’s nerve by standing over him after securing a rebound. DeRozan charged at Portis, who for his part, walked away with a big smile on his face:
DeRozan got called for a Flagrant Foul 1 for his antics, which was followed by a technical foul for his refusal to back off. Portis certainly got the better of him in this particular sequence.
Coach Doc might not say it directly, but I’m pretty sure this was what he was talking about when he praised his team’s ability to push the Bulls right to the edge without getting in trouble themselves.
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