As soon as the playoffs began, the reigning champions were marked with a big question mark.
In today's first-round second series of games with the Bulls, the Bucks were passive for almost the entire game, trailing by 18 points at one point, and finally losing the game 109-114, and will win home advantage through a season of hard work.
More importantly, through this game, the Bucks once again exposed the old problem of playing unstable when playing hard battles, making their defending prospects impossible to be optimistic.
In this game, DeMar DeRozan scored a career-high 41 points, Nikola Vucevic contributed 24 points and 13 rebounds, Zach Lavin scored 20 points with more than 50 shooting, and even Alex Caruso and Patrick Williams almost had a double-double. But it's not so much that the bulls beat the bucks, it's not that the bucks lost to themselves.
There is no intention here to belittle the Bulls, on the contrary, this team has played a refreshing performance on the key stage of the playoffs due to injury, and its strength and form have dropped significantly from the beginning of the season. But it is precisely because of such an opponent to make a comparison that the Bucks look even more disappointing.
Before the start of this series, not many people may believe that the Bulls will have a chance to eliminate the Bucks, not because the two teams have a 5-win difference in regular season records and three places behind, but because the Bucks have won all four times in the regular season and completed the sweep against the Bulls.
Of these four games, three of which occurred in the final five weeks of the regular season, the lineup rotation between the two sides is basically the configuration of the playoffs, and the playing style has been basically fixed, but the Bulls still lose three games, the last two of which, the final point difference is up to 20 points, the Bucks seem to be born to restrain the Bulls, such a set of duels, it seems that there is no suspense.
But when the playoffs actually started, people realized that things were not what they thought they were. In the first leg of the series between the two sides, although the Bucks successfully defended their home court, but only scored 93 points, the game until the last 1 and a half minutes, they still only lead the opponent by 1 point, if not the decisive moment of the opponent's 5 shots lost, the defending champion may have overturned in the first playoff game.
And today's game, the Bucks do not seem to have learned from the struggle of the first game, from the beginning of the continuous mistakes, a series of low-level mistakes were counterattacked, 0-9 start, set the tone for the whole game.
Today, the Bucks made as many as 10 turnovers in the first half alone, and the two outside cores, Ju Holliday and Chris Middleton, contributed 8 of them together, which left them 14 points behind at halftime, in a difficult situation of chasing points, and finally failed to fill the pit and swallow the bitter fruit of the loss.
To put it simply, today's bucks make people see a familiar recipe and a familiar taste. This team built around the Greek monster has emerged from the 2018-19 season, winning the first place in the regular season for two consecutive years, and the alphabet brother has also successfully won the MVP, but they have been out of the playoffs twice, so they have left the reputation of "pulling the crotch" at key moments, which has been questioned.
Last season, the Bucks managed to make a breakthrough and eventually won the championship, which covered up many problems. But in fact, in the process of winning the championship, the Bucks also took advantage of some luck - in addition to the first round of sweeping the Heat, they won the semifinals by grabbing seven difficult victories over Harden and Irving's consecutive injuries to the Nets, the Eastern Conference Finals defeated the Bucks who were missing two games, and the finals opponent Solar Successfully killed the West, which also has something to do with the opponent's injury.
Of course, the Bucks themselves have had some injuries, which is a fact. The point I want to make is that on this championship trip, the Bucks have not experienced the test of a super team with strength and form. They may be able to win such a showdown, but it doesn't really prove it.
In the latest championship odds updated by the bookmaker earlier today, the Bucks are only third behind the Warriors and Suns, which can also show from one side that the industry still has a hint of doubt about the Bucks' defending championship appearance.
The bucks' problems are, in fact, those old problems. First of all, the first one is the technical defect of the alphabet brother. Recently, a reporter posted a video on the Internet of Alphabet Brother hitting 15 consecutive three-pointers in training, but the truth is that his shooting rate outside the three-point line this season is still only 29.3%, and in the first two series with the Bulls, his long-range shooting performance is still a pitiful 6-of-1.
In today's game, Alphabet Brother scored 33 points, 18 rebounds and 9 assists on 11 of 20 shots, which can be described as a desperate fight, but all 11 goals were in the restricted area. The Bulls are well aware of this, so like all teams that have faced the Bucks, continue to use the iron barrel to limit their home stars, let go of the defensive, and really can't foul. And today, Alphabet Brother walked the free throw line 18 times and conceded 7 goals....
Middleton and Holliday are both excellent supporters and occasionally have key performances with big hearts, but after all, their level is still far from the real superstar, Middleton's third quarter small lump, Holliday also has some excellent defensive performances, but you can't expect them to play steadily every game. The two men shot 10-of-29 in the last game, and today they teamed up to deliver 10 turnovers, both responsible for the loss.
To make matters worse, Middleton also suffered an early left knee lateral collateral ligament strain today, not knowing whether it will affect the back games, if he is forced to miss more games, the Bucks' road to defending the title will become more difficult.
Even if Middleton is injured, the Bucks have successfully broken through the Bulls (in terms of strength comparison, the Bucks are still a more promising side), but in the later series, they may have to face tougher opponents such as the Celtics (or nets), Heat (or 76ers), and it is really difficult to say how far they can go.