MILWAUKEE — “Billy Ball” found its tempo and identified its driver.
Thanks to a team-high 35 points from Coby White, who was 7-for-13 from three-point range, the Bulls went from turnover machine in their opening-night loss to the Pelicans to turning up the pressure against the Bucks, running them out of Fiserv Forum in the second half en route to a 133-122 victory.
Coach Billy Donovan had a blueprint for what this team was supposed to look like, and this time, it was executed to perfection.
The Bulls attacked the rim when it was called for — they shot an efficient 48% from the field — and sprayed the ball out to open three-point shooters, who took 47 threes. And it was all done at a high pace to wear down the Bucks.
Even more impressive was that it wasn’t just the first pass from the paint to a shooter that kept Bucks defenders off balance. It was the second and third pass that proved to be deadly.
“It’s very important,” White said of the ball movement. “That’s what the coaching staff has been trying to instill in us. Getting to the paint, kicking it out, and then [Lonzo Ball] always says, ‘Good to great.’ He always says we need to make more good to great. Someone might be open initially, but there’s a more open one. Or you might be open on the wing, and someone might be open in the corner. The corner is the higher-value shot. It’s just reading the game that way.”
After a solid first half, the Bulls couldn’t have asked for a better third quarter against the division favorites.
Giannis Antetokounmpo started off the second half with a dunk for a three-point lead, and then it was as if the Bulls said, “Enough is enough.”
After a Nikola Vucevic floater, a White layup and another Vucevic jumper, the Bulls not only had no problem trading body blows with the Bucks, but with four minutes left in the quarter, they started going to the head. That included White shooting an efficient 5-for-7 in the quarter, including 2-for-3 from long range.
When the smoke cleared, the Bulls had turned the small halftime deficit into a seven-point lead thanks to White and Vucevic each scoring 12 and the Bulls outscoring Milwaukee 39-31 and shooting 14-for-22 (.636) from the field. Message sent.
“It’s just on us to stick to that identity,” White said. “Like Coach always says, ‘Be relentless. Keep going, keep going.’ It might be some nights in the first half, it might not be going our way. Just playing with that pace, relentless, relentless, try to wear teams down.”
That appeared to be the case for a Bucks squad having big expectations once again for the season, so it was only a matter of time before they would reel the Bulls back in, right?
Antetokounmpo cut the deficit to three with a free throw, but the team that seldom finds answers found one. Make that eight, as the Bulls went on an 8-0 run, capped off by another White three.
They would never look back.
“I think we’ve got a good group in terms of they want to learn, they want to get better,” Donovan said of the turnaround from the Game 1 disaster against the Pelicans. “Watching film, they knew in that New Orleans game, and not to take anything away from them, but we just put ourselves in a lot of difficult situations that we didn’t need to.
“[On Friday], we made some good decisions as the game went on, and we found some threes. They worked to get really good shots.”
