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Bucks-Bulls preview: The border battle for the Central Division lead!

Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports
14/15 NBA Season
Mil_medium
(2-2, 1-0 home)
vs.
Chi
(3-1, 2-0 away)
November 5, 2014
BMO Harris Bradley Center | Milwaukee, WI
7:00 CT
Fox Sports Wisconsin | 620 WTMJ
Probable Starters
Brandon Knight PG Kirk Hinrich
Jared Dudley SG Jimmy Butler
Jabari Parker SF Mike Dunleavy
Ersan Ilyasova PF Taj Gibson
Larry Sanders C Pau Gasol
2013/14 Advanced Stats
95.1 (8th) Pace 91.6 (23rd)
98.1 (25th) ORtg 110.7 (7th)
96.9 (3rd) DRtg 103.5 (11th)

On the Bulls: Blog a BullBulls By The HornsChicago Tribune

The Bucks return home tonight to face the Chicago Bulls. Normally these border battles are tense enough, but this time it's for THE LEAD IN THE CENTRAL DIVISION.

The Bulls come in to town with their fair share of injuries. Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, and Jimmy Butler have been in and out of the lineup to start the year. Despite those inconsistencies, they're still the Bulls though. They still have a solid defense, and their offensive game has picked up considerably with the additions of Pau Gasol, Doug McDermott, and Nikola Mirotic. Even if the big names are out tonight, there should be plenty for the Bucks 3rd-best (!) defense to deal with.

The Bucks are playing faster than they ever have, but have struggled early on with keeping the foot on the gas and the hands on the ball. There have been some very encouraging moments so far, but the propensity for turning the ball over and letting teams back into games has been deflating to say the least. The Bulls are probably the best defense the Bucks have seen so far, and limiting mistakes will likely be priority number one if the Bucks hope to climb above .500 and stand atop the Central Division.

Tonight will also be the first night where we get to see what kind of reception Chicago native Jabari Parker gets. Bulls fans definitely travel well, but it will be interesting to see what percentage of those people will also show support for Jabari. We'll have to wait and find out, but the atmosphere in the BMOHBC tonight should be fantastic.