On Friday, the Chicago Bulls tip off a stretch playing six of seven on the road when they face the Bucks in Milwaukee for NBA Cup competition.
Friday’s contest is Milwaukee’s introduction to the 2025 NBA Cup, while Eastern Conference Group C counterpart Chicago opened with a 135-125 win over the New York Knicks on Oct. 31.
The Bulls and Knicks played in consecutive contests, with New York ending Chicago’s perfect 5-0 start in a 128-116 decision last Sunday outside of the NBA Cup. The Bulls rebounded Tuesday with a 113-111 defeat of Philadelphia, maintaining the best record in the East through the initial weeks of the season.
Nikola Vucevic hit a 3-pointer in the closing seconds of Tuesday’s contest to help Chicago avoid back-to-back losses, capping a night in which Josh Giddey recorded his 20th career triple-double.
Giddey’s 29-point, 15-rebound and 12-assist performance also marked the first time a Bull posted consecutive triple-doubles since Michael Jordan in 1988-89. Giddey went for 23 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds in the loss at New York.
“We’re always confident in each other, and it was a great test (vs. Philadelphia) to see how we’d respond after our first loss in New York … Unbelievable resiliency to come out in the second half like we did,” Giddey said.
Giddey credited Chicago’s reserve unit for fueling a comeback from down as many as 24 points, which included Jalen Smith going for 14 points and Kevin Huerter posting 12 points and five rebounds.
On the season, Huerter is averaging 12.9 points, 2.6 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game coming off the bench. Fellow reserve Ayo Dosunmu missed the last two games with a quadriceps injury, but was scoring 16.2 points per game in the 5-0 start.
Dosunmu is listed as questionable for Friday.
Milwaukee, meanwhile, opens the NBA Cup having dropped two of its last three after a 4-1 start. The Bucks rebounded from a 135-133 loss at home to Sacramento last Saturday with a 117-115 defeat of Indiana on Monday, won on Giannis Antetokounmpo’s fadeaway buzzer-beater.
With Antetokounmpo held to a season-low 22 points Tuesday in Toronto, and Milwaukee shooting just 11-of-38 from 3-point range as a team, the Bucks lost a 128-100 blowout to the Raptors.
Milwaukee was also outshot at the free-throw line by Toronto, 23-of-29 to 15-of-21, continuing an early-season trend for the Bucks. Opponents are going to the charity stripe for 30.3 attempts per game — third-most in the league — while Milwaukee’s 22.9 attempts per contest are sixth-fewest.
“Fouls are up this year, which I don’t like. I’d rather have us play (with) less fouls overall,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “But right now … you’ll get a game where there are no calls, so it’s just been inconsistent right now.
“But we’ll all catch up and figure it out,” Rivers added.
While Milwaukee is not seeing much scoring from the free-throw line, with its 15.9 made foul shots per game ranking 28th in the league, the Bucks have been producing consistently from 3-point range.
The loss in Toronto was an early outlier for a team averaging 15.5 made 3-pointers per game on 39.3% shooting as team. Setting the pace at a torrid 52.9% on the season is AJ Green, who is averaging 12.3 ppg.
Breakout perimeter scoring threat Ryan Rollins, averaging 16.3 ppg — second on the team only to Antetokounmpo’s 32.3 — is making 1.9 triples an outing.
