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It was a regular season finale for the Milwaukee Bucks as they went south on I-94 to face the Chicago Bulls. Both teams had nothing to play for as Chicago was eliminated from the playoff contention and the Bucks were locked into the three seed at tip-off after the Brooklyn Nets win against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
With Milwaukee knowing their fate, Coach Budenholzer decided to rest the top players and had a starting lineup of Jeff Teague, Sam Merrill, Pat Connaughton, Thanasis Antetokounmpo and Mamadi Diakite. The Bucks struggled in the first half with shooting and defending the Bulls inside but were able to overturn the deficit and go into halftime only trailing by one but Thanasis got hurt right before halftime and didn’t return.
The second wasn’t much to speak of as Milwaukee tried regaining the lead but Chicago was always there to get a timely basket. Milwaukee now prepares to face the Miami Heat in the playoffs and Chicago once again will work on their rebuild.
Stat that stood out
34 that was the number of points rookie Jordan Nwora had. Nwora was a walking bucket getting his points in a variety of ways including shots off the dribble, from three and close to the rim. Nwora has some other skills to work on but his ability to come in and be a microwave scorer can be useful for the Bucks in the future.