Milwaukee Bucks vs. Chicago Bulls Preview: Guess Who’s Back

You know what’s better than one win against the Chicago Bulls? 20 wins against the Chicago Bulls. Dating back to the Joe Prunty Milwaukee Bucks era, this team has racked up a 20-2 record against their neighbors to the south across the past 4.5 regular seasons and one postseason. And so, this one-sided rivalry will be renewed afresh tonight after the Bucks knocked Chicago around 4-1 in last year’s first round of the NBA playoffs.

Where We’re At

Milwaukee may be experimenting with some new defensive tactics as they attempt to curtail opponent triples, but the Atlanta Hawks certainly didn’t mind the chance to play downhill in the pick-and-roll against Bud’s squad. The Bucks were properly thrashed by Atlanta, even when they played their typical starters for a good spell in the first game. The good news...it’s only preseason! No reason to panic here; and for my money I’m excited to see them roll out something new. There’s only so much same-old same-old zone drop one can watch before wondering how they might execute something a bit more fresh. I’m excited to see how it works, particularly against a Chicago team that, like Atlanta, isn’t all that reliant on triples.

For the Bulls, they’ve really suffered a downturn since their early season success. Lonzo Ball appears no closer to returning home from his injury odyssey. Nikola Vucevic slipped a bit last season, and DeMar DeRozan will have to repeat what was essentially a career year for him. Lots of people seem to be pegging them to fall off this year. I’m not so sure they’re due for such a steep drop-off, especially if Ayo Dosunmu can take a leap defensively to fill in Ball’s hole. Still, I’m not expecting them to improve all that much year-over-year. And frankly, as I was about to type something about the possibility of Patrick Williams improving under a full healthy season, I googled his name and discovered he was benched.

And you know what else, I just remembered this team signed Goran Dragic and Andre Drummond, neither of whom I really have any time for. AND YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE, those shameless south of the borderners signed Kostas Antetokounmpo in an embarrassing attempt to grovel at Milwaukee’s northern star. The more I write, the more I remember my disdain for the Bulls. I mean, our sister site BlogABull (we send our love) has Jabari Parker as their cover photo...is there anything of their own this franchise can claim fame to right now? I hope Grayson Allen goes off. Go Bucks.

Player to Watch

If Giannis is playing, it’s obviously him. MarJon Beauchamp is in timeout from qualifying for this section at the moment for me; he really needs some seasoning. I guess I’ll go with Grayson Allen, who has looked very comfortable driving into the teeth of the defense and he shattered the Bulls during the postseason.