Sports / NBA — The Bulls vs Bucks score on Friday afternoon in Milwaukee told two stories in one box score. The first quarter belonged to the Bucks, 32-17. Almost everything after it belonged to a Chicago team that had lost its opener by 43 points two nights earlier — and to a rookie, Caleb Wilson, who spent the final 76 seconds at the free-throw line and in Tyler Herro's passing lane, closing out a 132-125 win that gave head coach Tiago Splitter his first victory and left Milwaukee 0-2.
MILWAUKEE, October 23, 2026 — For fifteen minutes, this looked like a second consecutive humiliation. Milwaukee, playing an afternoon game moved four hours earlier than scheduled because the Brewers were hosting Game 1 of the World Series across town on Friday night, sprinted to a 19-6 lead inside five minutes on Tyler Herro's first three-pointer and closed the first quarter ahead 32-17. Chicago had arrived at Fiserv Forum carrying Wednesday's 135-92 loss at Toronto — a 43-point defeat that was the worst possible opening statement for a rebuilt roster. Then the Bulls scored 44 points in the second quarter, and the game never really belonged to Milwaukee again.
The comeback, quarter by quarter
Chicago's 44-30 second quarter flipped the script without quite flipping the lead, and the third quarter became a shootout Milwaukee won 42-41 — but only just, and the way it ended mattered. Rookie Brayden Burries hit a three and Kel'el Ware scored inside to give the Bucks a five-point cushion with 2:55 left in the third, before Jalen Smith beat the buzzer with a dunk that cut the deficit to 104-102 entering the fourth. Chicago scored the first six points of the final period, took a 108-104 lead on a Wilson slam, and pushed it to eight on a Buddy Hield three with 7:19 remaining. Milwaukee had one more run in it: Herro, the Milwaukee-area native who arrived in the blockbuster offseason trade that sent Giannis Antetokounmpo to Miami, hit back-to-back threes to put the Bucks back in front. That set up the closing minute — and the rookie.
Seventy-six seconds of Caleb Wilson
Wilson finished with 21 points, six rebounds and two blocks, and 19 of his points came after halftime — in his second NBA game, one night after a turnover-heavy debut in the Toronto blowout. But the raw line undersells the ending. With Chicago trailing by one, Wilson made two free throws with 1:16 left to put the Bulls ahead 124-123. After Tre Jones picked off a Ryan Rollins pass, Wilson made another pair from the line to stretch it to three. When Herro missed a three, Powell's two free throws gave Chicago a five-point cushion with 20 seconds left, and Wilson then stole a Herro pass, with Jones' two foul shots sealing the 132-125 final. Sequence by sequence, the last minute ran through a rookie: four free throws, a defensive rebound in the scramble, and the steal that ended it. Powell, the Bulls' leading scorer, was perfect at the line himself — 9-for-9 — on his way to 25 points.
Balance, benches and a closing lineup that raised eyebrows
Splitter's first win came with a decision that will be discussed in Chicago all weekend: his starting lineup of Wilson, Powell, Matas Buzelis, Josh Giddey and Jalen Smith did not finish the game. Giddey (six points, playing through a left wrist issue that had him listed as probable), Smith and Buzelis (seven points) watched the close from the bench while Leonard Miller (19 points off the bench), Jones (11 points, eight assists) and Isaac Okoro (12) closed alongside Wilson and Powell. Asked about it afterwards, Splitter pushed back on the idea of churning the starting five nightly: you have to judge game by game who finishes, he said, but change the starters every time someone plays well or badly and "you go crazy; you change every game." The supporting cast justified him — Smith still posted 14 points and 13 rebounds, Hield added 13, and Chicago's second unit out-produced the lineups Milwaukee trusted late.
Milwaukee's problem was arithmetic, not effort
The Bucks did not lose because their best player failed them. Herro scored 34, Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 19 points and 11 rebounds, Kyle Kuzma had 14 and Myles Turner 12, with Rollins, AJ Green and Ware scoring 11 apiece. They lost at the free-throw line: Milwaukee went 14-for-26 from the stripe — twelve points left unclaimed — while Chicago went 26-for-28, a twelve-point swing in a seven-point game, as Brew Hoop's recap tallied. That is the whole margin, with change. The loss dropped Milwaukee to 0-2 for the first time since the Jason Kidd era, a start nobody in the building expected from a home opener that also served as a memorial evening: the Bucks held a moment of silence before tip and a video tribute at halftime for Don Nelson, the winningest coach in franchise history, who died on August 9 at age 86.
Why this matters
One October comeback does not make a season, and Chicago's defense — 104 points conceded through three quarters — remains a live question. But context is what separates a result from a signal. The Bulls were beaten by 43 on Wednesday; rosters with fragile confidence do not usually answer that, 48 hours later, on the road, after falling behind by 15 in the first quarter of someone else's home opener. They answered it with their rookie closing the game at the line and their coach calmly benching three starters for the finish and explaining, without drama, why that does not mean a lineup change. For Milwaukee, the signal runs the other way: the post-Giannis roster can score — 125 points, seven players in double figures — but an 0-2 start built on missed free throws and a lost fourth quarter (30-21) is exactly the kind of early hole that turns a transitional season into a anxious one, with a road game at Philadelphia waiting on Saturday. Chicago hosts Washington the same night, carrying something it did not have on Friday morning: proof that its young core can close.
What happens next
Both teams play Saturday on the second night of a back-to-back — the Bulls at home against Washington, the Bucks at Philadelphia — so this game will be tested for meaning almost immediately. The questions travel with them. For Chicago: does Wilson's closing role grow, and does Splitter's finishers-over-starters approach survive its first bad night? For Milwaukee: can the free-throw problem — a correctable, mechanical one — be fixed before an 0-2 start becomes 0-3 on the road? Wilson, for his part, set his own standard after the game, declaring he intends to be "the most focused and most detailed player ever." On Friday's evidence — 19 second-half points and a final minute that touched every winning play — the rookie has started keeping his own receipts.
Sources: Associated Press, "Powell drops 25 points to help Bulls hold off Bucks," Oct. 23, 2026 (Powell 25, Wilson 21, Miller 19, Smith 14 points and 13 rebounds, Hield 13; Herro 34, Jaquez 19 and 11 rebounds, Kuzma 14, Turner 12; game moved four hours earlier for Brewers World Series Game 1; Don Nelson moment of silence and halftime tribute, died Aug. 9 at 86; up next Bulls host Washington Saturday, Bucks at Philadelphia Saturday); Reuters, "Bulls storm back from early deficit to beat Bucks," Oct. 23, 2026 (quarter flow, Smith buzzer dunk to 104-102, Wilson free throws at 1:16 for 124-123, Jones steal of Rollins pass, Wilson steal sealing it, Bulls trailed by 15 after first quarter, 43-point opening loss at Toronto); Sportradar official box score, Bulls 132, Bucks 125, Oct. 23, 2026 (quarters 17-32, 44-30, 41-42, 30-21; records Bulls 1-1, Bucks 0-2); ClutchPoints/CHGO Bulls, Oct. 23, 2026 (Splitter closing-lineup comments via Will Gottlieb; Okoro 12, Jones 11; Giddey probable, left wrist); Brew Hoop rapid recap, Oct. 23, 2026 (free throws: Bucks 14-for-26, Bulls 26-for-28; first Bucks 0-2 start since the Kidd era). Related on Signal Post News: Lakers beat Clippers 125-117 behind Reaves and Kessler, Celtics beat Knicks as Tatum scores 36 and Pistons beat Heat in a game shaped by injuries.