Chicago Bulls vs. Milwaukee Bucks: Game Outlook, Giannis vs. Jimmy
Two of the brightest stars in the Eastern Conference, Jimmy Butler and Giannis Antetokounmpo, will face off Thursday night in first game of a home-and-home matchup. Let’s go through what to look for in the first showdown of the season between the Chicago Bulls and the Milwaukee Bucks.
It’s been an up and down couple of weeks for the Bulls. So far this December, they’ve beaten the Cavaliers, lost to the Mavericks, beaten the Spurs, and lost to the Timberwolves after leading by 21 points in the second quarter. Hoping to establish a bit more consistency, Chicago will take on the Bucks in Milwaukee on Thursday night before heading home to face those same Bucks on Friday night.
When Bucks sharpshooter Khris Middleton went down for most of the season with a hamstring injury back in September, things looked bleak in Milwaukee. Most expected the Bucks to struggle scoring from deep (sound familiar?) and maybe get up to the high 30s in wins if everything else broke right.
Giannis had other plans.
The Greek Freak has been an absolute monster so far this season, posting career highs in -deep breath – points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, field goal percentage, effective field goal percentage, usage rate, PER, and very likely any other stat you can come up with. He’s several strides ahead of anyone else in the Most Improved Player race, and he has very long strides. A case could be made for him to be a top three player in the East and a top 15 player in the NBA this season. Man the East is bad, isn’t it?
We’re not here to talk about the state of the East though. Let’s instead go through some things to look for in Thursday’s game.
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Jimmy vs. Giannis
Although there will of course be eight other players on the court at any given time during Thursday’s game, most people will be tuning in to watch these two fight to score on the other. Both Jimmy Butler and Antetokounmpo are having career seasons, scoring over 20 points a game, and boasting the highest usage rate on their teams.
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Jimmy has been a force for the Bulls night in and night out. We’ve said it over and over. With 25.7 points per game, the second highest real plus-minus in the league, and a killer isolation game that allows him to score almost at will has vaulted him into the cream of the NBA crop. Having to guard an offensive player like Giannis for a big portion of the game will test his ability to keep production high on both ends, a task that he struggled with last season. Jimmy will be looking to drag his squad to victory no matter what after the embarrassment that was the Minnesota game, even if he has to score every basket himself.
However, Antetokounmpo will be no easy assignment. He’s already developed a reputation as a one-man fast break for good reason. If he gets a head of steam basically anywhere on the court, you’re toast. His euro-step (more like gyro-step) covers an absurd amount of ground, so much so that he casually jukes by any rim protector foolish enough to try and stay in front of him.
Giannis and Jimmy going at it will be must-see TV, and we should all count ourselves lucky that these stars play each other four times a year.
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We Don’t Need 3s
Whatever either team’s strategy is going into Thursday’s game, 3-pointers probably aren’t heavily involved. We know well the Bulls’ relationship with the long ball, and without Khris Middleton, the Bucks aren’t faring much better this season. The Bulls are a solid dead last in 3-point attempts per 100 possessions this season with with 20, and the Bucks are only slightly ahead of them at 25 attempts, good for 21st.
This shouldn’t be too surprising. Both squads aren’t heavy on 3-point shooters, and the marksmen that they do have—Doug McDermott and Isaiah Canaan on the Bulls, Mirza Teletovic and (I guess) Tony Snell on the Bucks—have significant flaws in other areas that keep them from seeing too many minutes.
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Look for both teams to score in other ways, whether that be Jimmy Butler ISOs, mid-rangers from Jabari Parker, bricked 3s from Nikola Mirotic that turn into tips from Robin Lopez, or fast break dunks from Giannis that cause you to question what mankind can accomplish with six steps. It should be entertaining.
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The Tony Snell Reunion Game
Yeah, yeah the Thibs reunion was alright and all, but on Thursday, we witness the return of a man who had a real, lasting impact on the Chicago Bulls. His name is Tony Snell.
Drafted 20th by the Bulls in 2013, it looked as if Tony was destined for a season riding the bench in Chicago until he was traded to Milwaukee in October for Michael Carter-Williams. The Bucks needed to replace some of Khris Middleton‘s shooting and, more frankly, do whatever they needed to do to keep Rashad Vaughn from seeing the court, and Tony Snell was their solution.
Snell is scoring a career high 8.3 points per game this season for the Bucks, but that is only because he’s on the court 29 minutes per game, also a career high. Per 36 minutes, he’s scoring 10.1 points, not quite at the 11.1 he scored in 2014-2015. The increased exposure hasn’t exactly done wonders for his efficiency either, as he is shooting a dreadful 28.3 percent from deep this season.
All that said, I’m happy that Tony is getting a lot of time somewhere. He still has a tiny sliver of potential to be a productive 3-and-D wing in the league, and I wouldn’t be shocked if a team with little to lose (read: Brooklyn) takes a chance on him in free agency this summer.
Stay tuned for more coverage of Thursday night’s game from the Pippen Ain’t Easy crew.
