Copyright Chicago Sun-Times
MILWAUKEE – The Bucks can run with the Bulls. Both came into Friday’s NBA Cup pool play game sprinting at about the same pace this season. The Bucks can score with the Bulls. The Bulls were seventh in the league in that category (120.4 points per game), while Milwaukee was a tick behind at 119.9 per game. The difference between the two? One has a Giannis. Thanks to perennial MVP candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo and his season-high 41 points to go along with 15 rebounds and nine assists, the home team handed the Bulls (6-2) their second loss of the season, as well as dropping them to 1-1 in Group C Cup play 126-110. That stellar performance included 19 of those points coming in the fourth quarter. “He’s just a handful with the way he plays,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said of Antetokounmpo afterward. “I’ve got great respect for his motor, intensity and the way he competes, but you’re going to have to at a certain point match force with force. “He without question in the fourth quarter overwhelmed us.” And it wasn’t just one Bulls player that felt it. Isaac Okoro started off on Antetokounmpo, quickly got into foul trouble, leading to a series of different Bulls bigs getting a crack at him. “He just started going at us one-on-one, and when he sees space he’s going to attack it,” Okoro said of the matchup. That didn’t mean Okoro’s confidence was the least bit shaken. “I’m comfortable guarding anyone,” he added. “I love guarding the best players in this league, but at the end of the day it’s not just on me. It’s team defense.” That meant Nikola Vucevic and Matas Buzelis also getting assigned to the Greek Freak, and with mixed results. Call it the further education of Buzelis. Sometimes that means a one-way bus trip to the school of hard knocks. That was evident several times in the second half when Buzelis was matched up with Antetokounmpo. With just over six minutes left in the third, the Bucks star faced up on Buzelis with the ball in his hand, simply shoved him to the right with his hand and strolled right down the lane for the nasty two-handed dunk. The two had a close encounter again in the fourth, this time with Antetokounmpo posting Buzelis up, getting the ball delivered to him, and with two twists of his body delivering another highlight dunk. That one gave Milwaukee the 101-95 lead with 6:45 left. But what Donovan appreciates about Buzelis makeup is his short-term memory. Rather than sulk after growing-pain moments, he fights back. He did that going right back down the floor and hitting a three pointer – his second of the game. “There’s been moments where he has a lot to learn, so to speak,” Donovan said of Buzelis and where he is in Year 2. “I think the defensive assignments, when he gets his length and keeps himself between his man and the basket, he’s been good. I think the consistency of that is something he’s working through. Where he was a year ago today to where he is now is night and day. My hope is with the way he works and that mentality, that growth will continue.” It did take steps against Antetokounmpo, as Buzelis finished the game with 20 points and eight rebounds. But there’s a big difference between a high-ceiling player still developing and one of the greatest players in the world. “These are situations and moments for (Buzelis) that he’s never been exposed to, that he’s getting exposed to, so there’s going to be some ups and downs, there’s going to be some learning,” Donovan added. Some lessons harder than others.
