SUNDAY BEST AFTER WORST?
DeRozan says Bulls will bounce back, but that’s easier said than done
Whatever ground the Bulls seemed to have gained on the Bucks with a 114-110 victory in Game 2 of the firstround playoff series, they gave it all back — and then some — from start to finish of an unspeakably foul performance in Game 3. Was it really only 111-81? Because it looked more like 181-11.
But it wasn’t just the Bulls “giving,” of course. There was a whole lot of Bucks taking, too, and the league’s defending champions never looked so greedy.
So what now? Do the Bulls have a chance to draw even again in Game 4 on Sunday at the United Center? Or is this thing all but over, healthy Khris Middleton or, as is the case, not?
“We stick to our game plan and execute the way we’re supposed to,” Zach LaVine said, “I think we’ll be all right.”
Yeah, well, not many of us would’ve imagined the Bulls following up a road win with the worst home playoff loss in franchise history.
“A loss is a loss,” DeMar DeRozan said. “With that, we’ve got to come back regardless and protect our home floor, you know? . . . Now we get an opportunity to tie this thing up Sunday on our court, and that’s what we’re going to go out there and do.”
Sounds like a plan, if not a guarantee. But a plan that’s going to, ahem, work? That’s a very different question. And here’s what’s happening: