The Milwaukee Bucks and Chicago Bulls each returned to action after two days off on Nov. 7 at Fiserv Forum, a fact that wasn’t lost on Bucks guard Cole Anthony coming out of the team’s shootaround earlier in the morning.
He quipped that the NBA wanted some energy for the game, and two of the highest-scoring teams didn’t disappoint with Milwaukee winning 126-110.
The Bucks once again were successful in their bid to not lose multiple games in a row early in the season by bouncing back from a loss in Toronto on Nov. 4. They improved to 6-3 on the season.
BOX SCORE: Bucks 126, Bulls 110
The game carried some added significance as well, as it was the first East Group C pool play game between the teams. The Bucks are now 1-0 in pool play with a plus-16 point differential while the Bulls dropped to 1-1 with a minus-3 differential. Charlotte and New York are the other teams in the group.
Milwaukee, the defending NBA Cup champion, has never lost in pool play.
Giannis Antetokounmpo starts slow, dominates Bulls
The raw numbers looked great for Giannis Antetokounmpo, as he scored 41 points, pulled down 15 rebounds and handed out nine assists.
But he shot just 16 of 32 from the floor, or 50%, after entering the game shooting a blistering 67.7% from the field. He missed a dunk in transition, had a layup attempt blocked from behind, and missed more than a handful of layup attempts through the first three quarters. Antetokounmpo was just 9-for-21 from inside the 3-point line through the first three quarters.
He also had two blocked shots and two steals to help make up for some defensive coverage lapses that allowed the Bulls to get out and score in transition.
But, in winning time, Antetokounmpo played like every bit of the MVP candidate he has looked like thus far.
He knocked down a 3-pointer to punctuate a 19-point fourth quarter where he was 7 of 10 from the floor overall. He also had a tough assist to set up a Ryan Rollins corner 3-pointer that made it 115-101 with 3 minutes, 10 seconds to go in the game.
It was Antetokounmpo’s second 40-point game of the season.
Bucks lean on their three big name bigs
Milwaukee has struggled defensively overall and in the rebounding department, so against the Bulls, Bucks head coach Doc Rivers leaned on Antetokounmpo, Myles Turner and Bobby Portis Jr. to try and take advantage of some height advantages in the front court.
The trio pulled down 27 of the team’s 52 rebounds, which was slightly better than Chicago’s 45. The Bucks also pulled down 13 offensive rebounds, leading to 20 additional points. They came into the game as the league’s worst team in that particular stat, averaging just 8.4 offensive boards per game.
Rivers also staggered minutes with Turner and Antetokounmpo more often than he had in the previous seven games the duo played together (Antetokounmpo missed one game), where one of them was on the court nearly the entire time. Fourth big man Jericho Sims rotated in for just three minutes.
Turner had a season-high 23 points and was a season-best 5 of 8 from behind the 3-point line. Turner put a punctuation mark on the game with a steal with 4 minutes to go in the game – his fourth of the contest – and a three-point play to put the game out of reach at 112-99.
Turner also had a blocked shot.
Portis played 20 minutes off the bench for just the fifth time this year, contributing seven points, five rebounds and two assists.
Bucks have a NBA Cup emphasis
If anyone thought NBA players might not care about the NBA Cup, Bucks guard Cole Anthony put that to rest following the team’s shootaround early on Nov. 7.
Anthony, who played with Orlando during the first two in-season tournaments, launched into a bitter memory over missing out on advancing to knock-out play in 2023 due to a point differential tie breaker the Magic lost.
“I’m like yo, this is some b.s.,” Anthony recalled. “Messin’ with my money.”
He was joking, but not really.
Each player on the winning team in 2025 will earn more than $530,000. But the broader point Anthony was trying to make by recounting that Orlando memory was that his Magic team went 3-1 and didn’t advance to the quarterfinals due to something out of its control.
So, dictating the outcome against Bulls was something the Bucks could largely wraps their hands around. Anthony helped that cause, scoring 11 points and handing out five assists off the bench for Milwaukee.
“You gotta look at it all through the same (lens) ‘cause we can say oh, it’s not that serious right now and lay an egg and you know, knock on wood, lose a game, and we might be out and not even in contention for the rest of the (pool play),” Anthony said. “We might not even have a chance to qualify. I think we just gotta take this game very seriously. The main thing is yo, we’re on our home court, we can’t let them come in and beat us on our home court. I think we just gotta have a sense of pride with that. I know we do. I know we will. They’re No. 1 in the East. They’ve been hoopin.’ That’s what was kind of stressed today at shootaround, so we’ll be ready for (the game).”
5 numbers
0: NBA Cup pool play losses for the Bucks over the last three seasons. They are now 9-0 in pool play.
2: Made 3-pointers by AJ Green, snapping his eight-game streak of making at least three (Green was 2 of 8). He tied Damian Lillard for the most consecutive games of making at least three in a row.
5-1: Bucks record against teams with a .500 record or better on the day of the game.
30: Career games in which Giannis Antetokounmpo has scored 40 or more points, pulled down 10 or more rebounds and handed out at least five assists, which is tied for third all-time with Elgin Baylor and James Harden. Oscar Robertson is second with 31 such games.
155: Career games in which Giannis Antetokounmpo scored at least 30 points, pulled down at least 10 rebounds and handed out at least five assists. He trails only former Bucks legends Oscar Robertson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (157) for most in NBA history.
Is Giannis playing?
Yes. The Bucks superstar is off the injury report completely. He had been dealing with pain in his left patellar and appeared to aggravate it on Nov. 3 in Indiana, but he did not play the fourth quarter in the blowout loss to Toronto.
Milwaukee Bucks injury report
Kevin Porter Jr. undergoes right knee surgery
The Bucks announced that Porter underwent “successful” surgery for a tear of the meniscus in his right knee on Nov. 3. The team’s starting point guard was initially out since Oct. 22 after severely spraining his left ankle in the opener against Washington, and then he injured his knee on Oct. 30 during a workout. He is expected to be out at least four weeks.
“He’ll handle it. You have no choice,” said Bucks coach Doc Rivers. “All these guys are survivors. They made it to the NBA. It’s a tough one. Because if you circle the guys like − you don’t anyone getting injured − but you have to circle obviously Giannis and then second one probably would’ve been (Porter) because of what he means to us on both ends of the floor, his size, his ability to get to the paint. So, right when it happened, I said it early, we have to weather this storm. He’s got four, four and a half weeks and we have to try to squeeze out as many wins as we can. ‘Cause it’s hard. You can see the minutes and the intensity ramping up on Ryan (Rollins) and Cole (Anthony), and it’s hurting ’em. We just gotta get through.”
What is the NBA Cup?
The NBA Cup is an in-season tournament the league began during the 2023-24 season. It features all 30 teams broken up into six “groups” for pool play. The winners of each group and one wildcard from each conference (so eight total teams) advance to single elimination tournament play culminating in the championship game in Las Vegas.
The Los Angeles Lakers (2023) and Bucks (2024) were the first two champions of the Cup while LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo were the first two Most Valuable Players.
Each team has hung a championship banner in their respective arenas to commemorate the title.
This year, each player of the Cup-winning team will make $530,933.
In two seasons of in-season tournament play, the Bucks are 8-0 in pool play, which has given them two additional home games for the quarterfinal games. The 2023 team lost to Indiana in the semifinal in Las Vegas.
Bucks probable starting lineup
What channel is the Bucks game on?
The game will be broadcast locally on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin with Lisa Byington, Marques Johnson and Melanie Ricks on the call.
What time is the Bucks game?
Tip off is scheduled for 7 p.m. CT.
Bucks vs. Bulls odds, over/under
Milwaukee is 4.5-point favorite over Chicago, with the over/under set at 240.5 points per BetMGM.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Giannis Antetokounmpo dominates fourth quarter as Bucks beat Bulls 126-110 in NBA Cup play
Reporting by Jim Owczarski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
