MILWAUKEE -- On the way to winning their first NBA championship, the Milwaukee Bucks transformed into a defensive juggernaut during the postseason, finishing No. 1 among playoff teams in defensive efficiency after placing near the bottom of the top 10 during the regular season.
The Bucks dipped to the No.14 in defense during the 2021-22 regular season. But they once again turned up the intensity for the start of the postseason on Sunday, smothering the Chicago Bulls offense en route to a 93-86 Game 1 victory in Milwaukee.
"Sometimes you got to win ugly," Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. "It's not always going to be pretty or perfect."
Milwaukee began the game hot, jumping out to a 9-0 lead and building a 16-point first quarter advantage over its division rival after sweeping them in all four games in their regular-season series. But the Bulls stormed back to make the game competitive and even took a lead in the third quarter before the Bucks recovered in the fourth.
"They made a couple more winning plays than we did," Bulls guard Zach LaVine said.
Entering Sunday, the Bucks had lost five of their past six Game 1s during their last two playoff runs, with their lone win coming against the Miami Heat in Game 1 of the opening round last year. But they came away with a victory on Sunday despite 21 turnovers, an uncharacteristic poor performance from Khris Middleton, who shot 4 of 13 (1-for-7 from 3) for 11 points with seven turnovers and zero points from Giannis Antetokounmpo in the fourth quarter.
"So many reasons why the game was ugly," Antetokounmpo, who finished with 27 points and 16 rebounds, said. "Wasn't able to make open shots, wasn't able to get to our spots. Not just for us, both teams. I think not playing the game for a couple days, gets you out of rhythm. But at the end of the day a win is a win. We really didn't want to be down 0-1."
Antetokounmpo battled foul trouble that limited his minutes during the fourth quarter, but he continued to be a disruptor defensively whenever the Bulls came near him. Chicago went 3-for-11 with Antetokounmpo as the closest defender, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
On the perimeter, Jrue Holiday and Wesley Matthews combined to slow down DeMar DeRozan and LaVine, who together shot 6 of 25 whenever one of those two players were the primary defender. Chicago's Big 3 of DeRozan, LaVine and Nikola Vucevic combined to shoot 21-for-71 (29.6%) from the field and 4 of 22 from 3.
"I don't know what the hell was going on," DeRozan said. "It just wasn't me. All of us. I guarantee, me, Zach and Vooch are not going to miss that many shots again. We just got to keep what we did defensively up and try to take that to another level."