15 down after one quarter, winners by seven: Chicago's rookies close out Milwaukee

Two nights after losing by 43 in Toronto, Chicago spent one quarter in Milwaukee looking like a team still carrying the luggage. The Bucks ran out to a 19-6 lead inside five minutes and closed the first quarter up 32-17, Tyler Herro scoring freely in front of his home state crowd. What followed was the best possible answer to a humiliation: the Bulls won the rest of the night, piece by piece, and closed the game at the foul line like a veteran team, winning 132-125.

The closing sequence is the part worth keeping. Jalen Smith's dunk at the third quarter buzzer cut Milwaukee's lead to 104-102, Chicago scored the first six of the fourth and pushed ahead by eight on a Buddy Hield three with 7:19 left, and then Herro hit back to back threes to give Milwaukee the lead again. With 1:16 to play, rookie Caleb Wilson made two free throws to put Chicago up 124-123, then, after Tre Jones stole a pass, made two more. A missed Herro three and two Powell free throws stretched it to five with 20 seconds left, and a Wilson steal finished the job.

The scoresheet gives the comeback its shape. Norman Powell led Chicago with 25 points, Wilson added 21, Leonard Miller scored 19 off his own strong night, Smith had 14 points and 13 rebounds and Hield added 13. For Milwaukee, Herro's 34 points came in the colours of a franchise still adjusting to its new life: he arrived in the blockbuster summer trade that sent Giannis Antetokounmpo to Miami, along with Jaime Jaquez Jr, who had 19 points and 11 rebounds. The Bucks have lost their first two games. The game itself had been moved four hours earlier because the Milwaukee Brewers were hosting Game 1 of the World Series across town, and the building still found its voice for a halftime tribute to Don Nelson, the winningest coach in Bucks history, who died in August at 86.

Context cuts both ways, as it should after one win. Chicago's defence gave up 125 points and a 15 point head start, and a team that needs fourth quarter free throw perfection to beat a retooling opponent has not solved itself in a night. But the Bulls were the side that lost by 43 on Wednesday. Response is a stat too, even if it never appears in the box score, and a rookie asking for the ball at the line with the game on it is the kind of response a long season can be built on.

Our call is that Wilson is the story to file away from this game, ahead of the comeback itself. Powell's 25 is what Powell does. A rookie scoring 21, taking the decisive free throws twice in the last 76 seconds and sealing the win with a steal, in his second NBA game, on the road, is a trust signal from a coaching staff that had safer hands available. If Chicago's season becomes anything, it will be because nights like this turned into a role, and roles given this early are rarely taken back. Milwaukee's question is larger and slower: Herro can score 34 and the Bucks can still lose at home to a team that trailed by 15, which says the post Giannis structure leaks in places scoring cannot patch.