Bench Leads Milwaukee Bucks to Win Over Chicago Bulls

The Milwaukee Bucks have struggled so far this season. In Wednesday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls, however, the team managed to find the perfect balance of defense and offense in their 97-90 win at home.

The starting lineup for Wednesday included both Michael Redd and Andrew Bogut, players who had suffered injuries in previous games. According to the Bucks’ team report from Wednesday afternoon, Bogut’s return was questionable but he showed up and played roughly 27 minutes. Though at times he was noticeably limping, Bogut played a solid game. He was sent to the locker room early in the fourth quarter and reports indicate he suffered from an injury to the face.

The bench contributed in a big way to the Bucks’ victory. Charlie Villanueva and Dan Gadzuric scored 23 and 11 points respectively. The bench as a whole put up 40 points in comparison to Chicago’s 25 bench points.

The Bucks played well in the first half, heading into the locker room with a 12 point lead after the second quarter. Richard Jefferson was a big play-maker for the Bucks during the first half, battling back from Deng’s domination in the first quarter. At halftime the Bucks had a 53% field goal completion.

The third quarter began and the Bulls began to whittle away at the Bucks’ lead. Early on Deng dominated for the Bulls with Gordon taking over and scoring 16 points to tighten the gap to 72-74 with Bucks still on top.

Jefferson and Villanueva were solid scorers in the fourth and Mbah a Moute played very good defense. Gadzuric made the final shot with 14 seconds left, sealing the score at 97-90.

While the Milwaukee Bucks pulled out a win against the Chicago Bulls Wednesday night, there is still work to be done with this team. Even though they went out at halftime having made 53% of their field goals, they ended the game only making 47%. The Bucks are the only team in the NBA to not break 50% in a win. This game has showed that Milwaukee has the talent and the teamwork to balance scoring with defense. Now they have to figure out a way to incorporate it into the rest of the season.

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