For most of this NBA season the Bulls have been one of the most surprising stories in the League. Unfortunately, as the season went on the Bulls continued to regress. There are many reasons for this such as injuries to Lonzo Ball, Zach Lavine, and Alex Caruso. There was a good chunk of the year where the Bulls were first in the East. Since then, they have dropped all the way down to the 6th seed which is just enough to avoid the play-in tournament. The Bulls are set to face the reigning champs, The Milwaukee Bucks which will be an uphill battle if they want to even stand a chance in the series. Game 1 is at 5:30 on April 17th.
- Lock down Giannis. Lock down Giannis. Lock down Giannis.
This one should be the most obvious. Giannis Antetokounmpo, aka, The Greek Freak has had another dominant season averaging a career high, 29.9 points per game, along with 11.6 rebounds per game. If the Bulls can’t slow down Giannis, they simply will not last in this series. Luckily the Bulls recently got their year two forward, Patrick Williams back from his season long injury. He could play a big role on defense this series. Slowing down Giannis may be the main focus for the Bulls, however there is still a lot more the Bulls need to do, if they want to win the series.
- Vučević is the X-Factor
Nikola Vučević might end up being the key to victory for the Bulls. He won’t be doing most of the scoring or even the playmaking. His rebounding is the key and I can prove it. In games where Nikola Vučević gets 14+ rebounds, the Bulls are 18-2. This shows how impactful it is when Nikola Vučević gets a lot of boards. It will be a tall task though with Giannis and Brook Lopez on the other side. If he is able to fight through it and get tons of rebounds, the Bulls could stand a decent chance.
- Stars need to be on A game
Even though I said that the Bulls need to lock down Giannis, let’s be honest, they probably won’t be able to. The Bulls will only have one option if this happens, keep up with the Bucks scoring. However it isn’t as simple as it seems. The Bucks have all defensive players in Jrue Holiday, Brook Lopez, and Giannis, who are looking to slow down the Bulls offense. So if the Bulls want to score, stars like DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine are going to have to be on their A game 100% of the time. If DeRozan or LaVine are off their game for even a quarter, that Bucks offense could pull away and be too much for the Bulls.
As you can probably tell from reading this, it will be very tough for the Bulls to win this series. However, it is not impossible because we have seen them be amazing before. They will have to be amazing 100% of the time though. Once again they will need to lock down Giannis Antetokounmpo, use Nikola Vučević correctly, and the stars will need to do amazing on the offensive side of the ball.
Third Down With Devin 