(670 The Score) Bulls guard Alex Caruso probably summed it up best.
"We got our spirit back," Caruso said after the Bulls evened their first-round series with the Bucks with a 114-110 win in Game 2 on Wednesday in Milwaukee.
The Bulls also have something else back that goes hand in hand with their spirit – their identity, as K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago said on the Mully & Haugh Show on Thursday morning. While not predicting the outcome of the series, Johnson believes everything the Bulls are doing is sustainable and that they'll be in the mix for the long haul against the favored Bucks. Once again, the Bulls are creating havoc on defense, forcing 21 turnovers in Game 1 and then 15 more in Game 2 and daring anyone on the Bucks to beat them other than star Giannis Antetokounmpo. Star DeMar DeRozan was also once again at his best.
"It's because not only they won Game 2, which is obviously significant, but it's because of what I saw from them in Game 1," Johnson said. "They played very similarly in Game 1. They just didn't hit shots. That identity that I was talking about earlier was back. They just look like that team that we saw (early in the regular season).
"Again, you don't want to get ahead of yourself too much here, but the way the Bulls are playing – in the grind, playing physically, defending – that should give Bulls fans a lot of hope for this series moving forward."
The tenor of the series has shifted not just because of the Bulls' win in Game 2 but also because All-Star forward Khris Middleton suffered an MCL sprain Wednesday. While the Bucks haven't yet announced further details, the expectation is Middleton will be out for the remainder of the series.
"(The Bucks) clearly were not valuing the end of the regular season, whereas the Celtics took a different approach and said, 'Hey, we got to play those guys at some point, we're not scared of Brooklyn,'" Johnson said. "And the Celtics have taken a 2-0 lead over the Nets. And again, these series aren't over, I need to emphasize that. But the Bucks, who certainly looked like they were angling to fall to a matchup with the Bulls, are now in a dogfight and likely without one of their All-Stars for the remainder of the series in Khris Middleton."
