Tonight’s matchup between the 6-9 Chicago Bulls and the 5-9 Milwaukee Bucks will be one of just five games the Bulls will play over national airwaves. The second of four meetings between the two, this one will be shown on ESPN tonight at 6:30 pm CST. It’s been well-documented that the transition to the newest network for viewing Bulls, Blackhawks, and White Sox games out of Chicago has been a mess. The Chicago Sports Network, CHSN, has replaced the former station NBC Sports Chicago. The main issue with the new network, however, is that it has failed to strike a deal with most of the streaming platforms with which the previous NBC Sports Chicago had struck contracts. Those deals all expired at the beginning of October 2024, when the new CHSN opted to drive a much tougher bargain, resulting in a minimal outreach through two months of being live. Nikola Vucevic has found a creative way to poke fun at the struggling station while gaining fan support.
Two hours before tip-off in Milwaukee, where the ESPN crew is ready to nationally televise the Bulls and Bucks matchup, the two-time All-Star center sent out a tweet that gained much traction in the first hour. Luckily, FuboTV has recently struck a contract with CHSN, making it easier for fans to subscribe to one service and catch all of Chicago’s action. However, they still have not reached terms with Comcast, the largest cable provider in the Chicagoland area, losing out on thousands of potential viewers. Vucevic is ready for the full support of Illinois fans tonight, regardless of the TV service they’re subscribed to.
The Bulls will head to the Fiserv Forum arena as almost nine-point underdogs despite winning their first meeting in the same arena by 11 points on October 25th. Despite stumbling out of the gates, the Bucks have won three of their last four, with a controversial ending in their lone loss to the Charlotte Hornets. This will be a much tougher test than the first time around. Chicago will need to play a much cleaner brand of basketball tonight, as the first time Coby White dropped 35 points on seven three-point makes, the Bulls were outdueled in nearly every other facet. Another hint that tonight will be an uphill battle is that in the first meeting, Milwaukee only shot 32.5% from deep, a dip from their average of 36.0%.
Zach LaVine, White, and Vucevic will all need to shoot the three-ball well, similar to their last outing, when the trio combined for 18 three-point field goals and 79 points. This is typically a tough matchup for Chicago. They’ll need to run in transition and battle for rebounds without ample size to compete with Brook Lopez, Bobby Portis, and Giannis Antetokounmpo in the half-court. Can Chicago build a win streak tonight and knock off the Bucks again, or will Milwaukee continue its upward trend toward the top of the Eastern Conference? Thankfully for all of Chicago, it will surely be the most viewed game of the year for Bulls fans.
