Full Disclosure: I didn’t watch this game, as I was (and am) battling a fever at the moment.
Where has Doug McDermott gone? Dougie McBuckets has seen his minutes shrink from 24, to 17, to 11, to 11, and now to 7 minutes this season. It doesn’t seem as if Thibs trusts the young fella yet, and I can see why. McDermott doesn’t play a great defense, and in the 3 games I’ve caught him in this year, he looks like he doesn’t really have a clue what offensive set pieces the team is running at any given time. There are only so many times you can run from corner 3 spot to the other without looking like you’re just making it up.
Looking at the box score, the story of the game is basically just “the Bulls shot the lights out and the Bucks didn’t”. They lost the rebounding battle (45.7 to 54.3 – I’m going to use rebounding rate instead of rebounds in most cases), and they turned the ball over more. Still, they dominated the eFG% battle .500 to .388 (eFG adjusts for 3s against 2s) and held the Bucks’ starters to a combined 14-44. Not too shabby.
The win brings the Bulls to 4-1, with their only loss to a team that will be battling the Bulls for the #1 seed in the East when it’s all said and done (I don’t care what their record is right now). It’s a two-horse race this year, even though I think a team like the Wizards could come in and give a team hell.
The Bucks are a more interesting team then in previous years. O.J. Mayo is no longer so rotund, and Giannis Antetokounmpo (what a mouthful) should be very good someday. If the Bucks had a good coach, the Greek Freak would start over Jared Dudley, but instead they are coached by Jason Kidd (coincidentally, Jason Kidd is probably currently the team’s best point guard.)
The Bulls play the Sixers next, and that game should be fun. Philadelphia is probably the worst team in the past 10 years, so I look forward to 8 minutes of E’Twaun Moore in that one.