Traveling from derby to derby was the Bucks, who two nights after the hearty game against the Miami Heat traveled east to neighboring Chicago to face the Bulls in a big game in the Eastern District. The Milwaukee team prevailed 118-112 with Giannis Antitokoumbo pulling things and wonders for another night, Jru Holiday – Chris Middleton backing him up perfectly and Brooke Lopez participating in the warm up and counting on his return to action.

39-25 the champion (22/12 home and 17-13 away), with the Greek freak filling in his stats (34 points, 12/20 two points, 10/19 shots, 16 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 1 block in 39 minutes) to pick apart Tristan Thompson, who the Bulls brought exclusively for him, have other-worldly moments, and generally write another great performance en route to the third regular-season MVP award.

Jru Holliday (26 points, 7/14 two points, 3/6 three points, 3/4 shots, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, no errors in 38 minutes) and Chris Middleton (22 points, 8/11 two points, 1/ 4 three points, 3/4 shots, 6 rebounds, 7 assists) were great too, with Grayson Allen sharing his…comments on Alex Caruso’s injury, Bobby Portis coming into play dynamically and the bench making offers some solutions, listen to returns of George Hill, Pat Conaton, Brooke Lopez.

At 39-25 and the Bulls (24-10 home and 15-15 away) in an unreal battle for first places in the eastern region. Jacques Lavigne and DeMar DeRozan dominated the attacking game of the Chicago team (59 points from 24/56 shots) with Nikola Vucevic (19 points, 6/9 two points, 2/4 three points, 1/2 shots, 9 rebounds, 2 assists ). , 2 steals) as the third pole, but beyond that there is no fourth. The absences of Lonzo Bowl, Alex Caruso and Patrick Williams are important for the Bulls, who wanted to send a message about their true potential in the NBA but were once again defeated by a top league team.

Next game for the Bucks is Sunday night at 10:30 p.m. against last year’s finalist Phoenix Suns at the Fiserv Forum.

The race

The first half of the Bucks’ game was excellent, Portis had eight points in the sixth minute for 12-18 and Holliday filled in his stats while Allen did a good job and tagged DeRozan. Lavin was in an incredible situation and with 10 points from 5/5 two points he kept the hosts going, in the first twelve minutes with many misses, in the first twelve minutes that ended with 25-25 with the guests making six errors and the The hosts scored nine easy points.

With Antetokunbo in the… faceoff, the Bucks scored 13 points in three minutes early in the second period to build a nine-point lead (29-38) to move to +14 (33-47) with three points from Middleton and a shot of Matthew. However, they lacked consistency in defense, causing the Bulls to find their crowd’s rhythm, nabbing the difference and narrowing it to two (53-55) before Giannis scored 2/2 shots for the 53-57 half. Lavin and DeRozan had 25 points but from 11/25 shots while Milwaukee looked for solutions on his bench he couldn’t find them, he expected something from Grayson but didn’t take it either.

With five fouls in the first 24 minutes, the Bucks went into the second half much more dynamically. It took them four to three minutes to show the cops their mood without becoming the actual boss of the game. The derby continued, Vucevic with two points and Lavin “hit” Ibaka, Dosunmu surprisingly scored 81-76, Derrick Jones made a poster of Antetokunbo for 83-76 and suddenly everything went wrong for Mill. endure, chase and sweep the situation in the fourth twelve minutes.

John and Holidayi came on with a determination to reduce possession (91-88), Middleton leveled after his own offensive rebound at 8:41 to 93-93 and everything was back in perfect balance. Allen won unsportsmanlike conduct from Jones for his 93-95 shots, Holliday hit a great three-pointer for 99-98 while the United Center raged, and over time the match resembled a crucial playoff game. Another thing Antetokunbo and Holiday didn’t want, another thing Middleton, who scored in 44′ 102-106, didn’t want, another thing the Bucks, who live and breathe for ambiguous plays, generally didn’t want.

Lavin did his best not to judge the match too early, but Vuσεevi ασ missed an open three for the score of 107-112, Giannis had 2/2 shots at 28.1″ for 109-114 and the Bucks gave no others Right, didn’t look back and left Chicago triumphant.

THE TWELVE MINUTES: 25-25, 53-57, 88-81, 112-118

CHICAGO BULLS (Billy Donovan): DeRozan 29 (9/27 two points, 2/3 three points, 5/5 shots, 3 rebounds, 5 assists), Vucevic 19 (6/9 two points, 2/4 three points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals), Thompson 4, Lavin 30 (10/16 two points, 3/10 three points, 1/3 shots, 8 rebounds, 6 assists), Dosunmu 8 (5 rebounds, 7 assists), White 3 ( 1), Green 9 (1), Jones 5, Brown 5

MILGUOKI BUKS (Mike Budenholzer): Middleton 22 (8/11 two points, 1/4 three points, 3/4 shots, 6 rebounds, 7 assists), Antitokunbo 34 (12/20 two points, 10/19 shots, 16 rebounds, 5 Assists, 2 steals), Portis 12 (2 trebles, 7 rebounds), Allen 7 (1), Holiday 26 (7/14 doubles, 3/6 trebles, 3/4 shots, 8 rebounds, 5 assists), Ibaka, Carter 8 (2/3 threes), Matthews 7 (1), Nuora 2, Bebri

Chicago Bulls team stats: 37/68 two points, 10/26 three points, 8/11 shots, 45 rebounds, 25 assists, 5 steals, 2 blocks, 12 errors, 23 fouls

Milwaukee Bucks team stats: 33/57 two points, 10/31 three points, 22/33 shots, 61 rebounds, 20 assists, 5 steals, 5 blocks, 13 errors, 18 fouls