{"id":634220,"date":"2026-03-02T10:36:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/634220\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T10:36:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:36:28","slug":"bucks-vs-bulls-player-grades-kevin-porter-jr-and-cam-thomas-dribble-into-blowout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/634220\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucks vs. Bulls Player Grades: Kevin Porter Jr. and Cam Thomas dribble into blowout"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">March came in like a lamb for the Bucks at the United Center today: a 16-point first-half lead turned into a 120-97 laugher, thanks to a catastrophic 27-0 Bulls run and a 33-8 fourth quarter in the home team\u2019s favor. Still, the Bucks finished the season series 3-1 over the Bulls. Read our full summary of the game <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brewhoop.com\/bucks-scores-results\/61596\/milwaukee-vs-chicago-bulls-final-score-recap-blowout-27-0-run\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">here<\/a> and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/bucks-in-six\/id1682617435\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Bucks In Six Minutes;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Bucks In Six Minutes<\/a> below.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/second-half-collapse-dooms-bucks-in-120-97-loss-to\/id1682617435?i=1000752363673\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:View Link;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">View Link<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Player GradesMyles Turner<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">21 minutes, 8 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block, 3 turnovers, 3\/10 FG, 2\/5 3P, 3\/4 FT, -20<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Scoreless after the first quarter, and only five further shot attempts. In his defense, Doc wasn\u2019t playing him much for whatever reason. Probably could have used his rim protection for more than nine second-half minutes, given that Chicago outscored Milwaukee 34-10 in the paint after half.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: D+<\/p>\n<p>Kevin Porter Jr.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">32 minutes, 10 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 4\/16 FG, 0\/1 3P, 2\/2 FT, -23<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">A lot of really tough shots and few fell, especially inside. What I liked the least, though, was the open threes he passed up over and over again in the second half. Couldn\u2019t stop Josh Giddey, who had a triple-double (and a surprising 14 rebounds).<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: D<\/p>\n<p>AJ Green<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">30 minutes, 13 points, 2 assists, 4 fouls, 4\/11 FG, 4\/11 3P, -20<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Again, all his points in the first half. 0\/3 in the second. Made some important ones early, but then disappeared. Offered next to nothing on the other end.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: D+<\/p>\n<p>Ryan Rollins<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">34 minutes, 11 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 turnovers, 2 steals, 5\/11 FG, 1\/6 3P, -19<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The counting stats are decent until you get to the turnovers, which are a real problem of late with Rylo. His passing in the second quarter was outstanding, but his second half was a brickfest. Starting 4\/4 and then going 1\/7\u2026 hardly alone among the starters today.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: C-<\/p>\n<p>Kyle Kuzma<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">23 minutes, 10 points, 4 assists, 4 turnovers, 4\/5 FG, \u2013 24<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">I\u2019ll give him credit for being the only Buck to make any hay inside, but otherwise, nothing positive from Kuz today. Seemed too cavalier when he entered in the fourth quarter, and the Bucks continued getting wrecked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: D<\/p>\n<p>Bobby Portis<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">24 minutes, 18 points, 5 rebounds, 7\/14 FG, 3\/8 3P, +1<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Too many middies (more on that later) and settling for jumpers, but at least they were falling. A key part of the Bucks\u2019 second-quarter success, but also part of the unit that started to let the game slip away early in the fourth before checking out.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: B\u2013<\/p>\n<p>Cam Thomas<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">18 minutes, 15 points, 3 assists, 3\/11 FG, 8\/10 FT, +2<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The type of scoring line that looks really efficient if you only look at the free throws. Dribbled the air out of the ball, gets to the line, took ill-advised jumpers\u2026 the Cam Thomas experience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: C\u2013<\/p>\n<p>Jericho Sims<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">24 minutes, 2 points, 11 rebounds, 1\/1 FG, +1<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Excellent on the glass in the first half and five offensive boards for the game, but\u2014stop me if you\u2019ve heard this before\u2014didn\u2019t do anything after half. Also part of the unit I mentioned with Portis above, and was hardly near the rim when the Bulls started yamming on them.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: C-<\/p>\n<p>Ousmane Dieng<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">21 minutes, 7 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists, 3 steals, 3\/12 FG, 1\/6 3P, -1<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Dieng\u2019s three-point shooting has cratered the last three games (2\/14), but a chunk of his misses came in garbage time after the Bucks went down 19. Wasn\u2019t on the floor for too much of the early fourth quarter cataclysm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: C<\/p>\n<p>Doc Rivers<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Oh boy, where do I start? I\u2019ll just give one of his postgame comments, but I have a lot more to say about today, which I\u2019ll do in a separate place. Anyway, the Bucks missed 18 consecutive field goals from the third into the fourth quarter, and a lot were clean looks. Here\u2019s what Doc had to say:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI don\u2019t care if it\u2019s not in the paint. We\u2019re getting wide-open threes. We\u2019re one of the best shooting threes in the NBA. So if we take 30 of those, I can live with it. What I didn\u2019t like is (that) we didn\u2019t get the right shots. Half of them were twos, contested. That\u2019s what bothered me in the game. Honestly, if we\u2019d have got all those plays and they were wide-open threes and we had two points in the paint, but they were wide-open threes, I could go to sleep tonight. Because I know our guys got the right shots. I thought by the time we got the right shots, it was too late.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Doc had earlier mentioned that \u201cthe good looks came after crappy basketball for the first 11 minutes of the third quarter.\u201d Not addressing crappy basketball is bad enough. Moreover, shooters shoot, but to completely abandon anything inside?<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Not that it was even a priority: the Bucks were 6\/6 in the restricted area in the first half and 2\/7 in the second half. Chicago had three injured in their frontcourt (Zach Collins, Jalen Smith, and Patrick Williams), so Nick Richards and Leonard Miller were their only guys above 6\u20198\u201d. Matas Buzelis and Guerschon Yabusele rounded out an already-thin Bulls frontcourt post-deadline. Even without Giannis, Doc has five players 6\u20199\u201d and up at his disposal, enough size and talent to deal with Chicago\u2019s four. Not caring if their shots aren\u2019t in the paint? To quote my colleague Jack Trehearne: diabolical.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: F<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Garbage Time: Gary Harris, Andre Jackson Jr., Pete Nance, Gary Trent Jr.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Inactive: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Alex Antetokounmpo, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Taurean Prince, Cormac Ryan<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Bonus Bucks Bits<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Eight points is the lowest any NBA team has scored in a regulation quarter this season. Milwaukee was 2\/21 from the floor in the period.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Bulls\u2019 27-0 run was a franchise record. And that was the second-largest run the Bucks have ever given up: the worst was a 29-0 Cavs run at the Bradley Center in December 2009, as we found out postgame. For what it\u2019s worth, the NBA record is 30-0.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Portis asked us assembled reporters in the locker room post-game if we\u2019d ever seen anything like that run. He hadn\u2019t, and none of us had either\u2014at least not in person.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">A few more stats on the Bucks\u2019 epic drought: the 18 straight misses came between Cam Thomas\u2019 lay-in at 1:23 in the third and Dieng\u2019s dunk with 3:12 left in the game. That\u2019s 10 minutes, 11 seconds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">They also missed 15 consecutive threes across a slightly longer span. At half, they were 10\/23 from deep, a nice 43.5%. In the second half: 3\/23, 13%. 13\/46 overall is 28.3%. Barf.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">There were seven minutes and 32 seconds between Bucks points, and it took them just over six minutes to register a point in the fourth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">But the most damning thing: of those 18 straight misses I mentioned? They took only one shot within 10 feet: a Portis driving hook.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">For the game, they took 30 attempts in the paint, and the Bulls outscored them there 50-26. The disparity was particularly bad in the second half: Chicago was 17\/20 in the paint, and Milwaukee shot just 5\/17.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">It was a sloppy game overall with 37 combined turnovers (19 for Milwaukee, 18 for Chicago), and Chicago scored six more points off them than Milwaukee\u2019s 14.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Strangely enough, the Bucks had a sizeable shot advantage with 11 more field goal attempts than the Bulls. Part of that can be chalked up to the Bucks\u2019 11-7 edge on the offensive glass. Free throws were 23-17 in favor of the home team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Milwaukee racked up 19 first-half assists\u2014their highest total in a half since opening night\u2014on 25 made baskets. Then seven on 10 makes in the second half. I\u2019m no Red Auerbach, but I\u2019d say that means you should probably pass the ball more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">In checking the shot chart, I was struck by this: the Bulls took only two shots between nine feet and the three-point line. The Bucks took\u2026 a whole lot more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Matas Buzelis put Portis on a poster early in the fourth, but it\u2019s all love: the two exchanged jerseys after the game. Bobby says he may need another room at home in Arkansas for the collection he\u2019s amassed from opponents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">There was a baby race at halftime in the United Center. Only two of seven even made it off the starting line (the charity stripe), and one only made it a few feet. Everyone else just sat there. 11-month-old Will\u2014the only one who truly crawled\u2014annihilated the competition and was scooped up at midcourt by Benny the Bull after his victory. He was interviewed by the Bulls\u2019 in-game emcee, and after showing brief tactile interest in the foamy microphone screen, he pushed it away.<\/p>\n<p>Up Next<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">This was the front end of a back-to-back, with a quick trip back to Milwaukee tonight to face the Boston Celtics tomorrow evening. Tip is 6:30 p.m. Central on Peacock and FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March came in like a lamb for the Bucks at the United Center today: a 16-point first-half lead&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[2745,53974,23797,7,507,75,920,959,136,919,329,3824,26291,2660,3036,404,107,204,2291,2762,965,365,124,14489,973,121,367,6,7797,6609,6140,21490,2763,281,12289,361,4104],"class_list":["post-634220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-bulls","tag-aj-green","tag-alex-antetokounmpo","tag-andre-jackson-jr","tag-basketball","tag-bobby-portis","tag-boston-celtics","tag-bulls","tag-cam-thomas","tag-cavs","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-chicagobulls","tag-cormac-ryan","tag-doc-rivers","tag-fourth-quarter","tag-gary-harris","tag-giannis","tag-guerschon-yabusele","tag-jalen-smith","tag-jericho-sims","tag-josh-giddey","tag-kevin-porter-jr","tag-kyle-kuzma","tag-leonard-miller","tag-matas-buzelis","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-myles-turner","tag-nba","tag-nick-richards","tag-ousmane-dieng","tag-patrick-williams","tag-pete-nance","tag-ryan-rollins","tag-taurean-prince","tag-thanasis-antetokounmpo","tag-the-bucks","tag-zach-collins"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}