Chicago Bulls Stat Monkey Brief: Bulls/Bucks (1/9/13)
The Bulls are back on track finding their third straight win and another solid offensive performance Monday night. Tonight, the Bulls face a stout defense in the Milwaukee Bucks, with whom they have split their series so far this season (1-1). ICYMI – Highlight from Monday:
Playing Their Game
The past two times these two teams faced off, the Bulls did a good job of accentuating their talents. In both contests, the Bulls completely dominated the offensive glass, pulling down over 37 percent of rebounding opportunities while on offense. They also did a good job of getting to the foul line, doing so on over 20 percent of all field goal attempts. Chicago was able to exploit the Bucks’ weaknesses as one of the worst defensive rebounding teams and also one of the league’s worst in sending players to the charity stripe.
In addition, the Bulls were able to control the game, keeping the pace slow and not letting Milwaukee, who likes to turn up the tempo, play their style of basketball. If Chicago plays their game and continues to take advantage of the Bucks’ weaknesses, they will be very successful tonight.
Let Monta Do His Thing
There are two players on the Bucks that love to use the ball, Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings. Each is using 28.2 and 23.8 percent of possessions, respectively; however, Ellis isn’t using those possessions very efficiently.
While Ellis is dropping over 19 points per game, he is actually holding is team back by doing so with an offensive efficiency of only 97 this season. For reference, the Bucks as a whole have an offensive rating of 102.2, which is good for 27th in the league. That being said, the Bulls should let the man do his thing, and hopefully his inefficiency will take the Bucks out of the game. Jennings, on the other hand, is managing a fairly solid ORtg of 104, so slowing him down a little might not be the worst idea in the world.
