Chicago Bulls (1-1) beat Milwaukee Bucks (0-2) 132-125 on the road on Friday, October 23, after falling far behind. The Bulls were down 15 at one quarter break and still finished 7 ahead.
The turnaround
The Bulls trailed by 15 after the first quarter. From there they outscored the Bucks 115-93, a 22-point swing over the rest of the game.
The turning point was the second quarter, which the Bulls won 44-30.
What flipped it
The Bulls cashed in 28.6 free throws for every 100 shots, the Bucks only 15.2 and the Bulls gave the ball away on 12.5% of their possessions while the Bucks did so 17% of the time. Getting to the line gave them easy points when the shots were not falling.
The Bucks did win one battle, shooting: eFG% of 60.3% against 53.1%. The Bulls made up for it elsewhere.
The game played at about 112 possessions per team. The Bulls scored 118 points per 100 possessions and the Bucks scored 111.8, a difference of 6.2.
The Bulls' reserves also made a difference, outscoring the opposing bench 54-35.
Who carried the comeback
Tyler Herro (MIL) posted the best line of the night by Game Score (25.9): 34 pts, 5 reb, 4 ast on 12-24 shooting. The team was +1 in the minutes Tyler played.
For the Bulls, Jalen Smith was the best of the rest at 17.6: 14 pts, 13 reb, 1 ast, 3 stl on 6-10 shooting.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. (19 pts, 11 reb, 5 ast) and Jalen Smith (14 pts, 13 reb, 1 ast) each recorded a double-double.
Game Score is a single number that weighs points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, shooting efficiency, fouls and turnovers. It is not an official stat, just a quick way to rank lines.
What it means
The pre-game Win Meter had it close to a coin flip, at about 36% for the Bulls.
Across the last 8 meetings in our records, Milwaukee Bucks lead 5-3.
The Bulls are now 1-1, and the Bucks are 0-2. The Bulls last five before this game: W-W-L-L-L.
Written automatically by Tip Off Live software from box score data. Ratings and probabilities are our own model estimates.