Damian Lillard doesn't hold back after Bucks' shocking loss to Bulls

The Milwaukee Bucks fell to a shocking 133-122 defeat at the hands of the Chicago Bulls on Friday. Coby White's hot scoring night was a reminder of the jump he took last season, proving it wasn't just a hot spell. Nevertheless, the loss has raised some questions over Milwaukee's credentials as a contending team in the Eastern Conference.

When speaking to the media after the game, Damian Lillard was blunt in his assessment of where things had gone wrong. He pointed toward the team's disconnected defense as the biggest problem, noting they hadn't stuck to their system or followed the scouting report.

“We came into the game knowing they want to shoot more threes,” Lillard said. “They got this guy, this guy, this guy and this guy that can shoot. And we closed short. We didn’t help each other. We didn’t rotate sometimes. A couple of times, guys going downhill, we see the back of their jersey, we know that it’s a big popping that can shoot, we’re supposed to late switch and we kept chasing the guy and they throw it back. There’s no way a big is going to get back to that.”

Judging by their performance on Friday, the Bucks are in the same spot as they were in at the end last season — inconsistent, disconnected and underwhelming. The duo of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Lillard should dominate in games against mid-to-low seeding teams. They had no business losing to a Bulls team mired in the opening phase of a roster reset.

Doc Rivers will undoubtedly want to ensure losses like the one against Chicago don't start to pile up. The Bucks are supposed to be among the Eastern Conference elite. They must start proving it — or accept that it's time to tear the roster down . That would also mean admitting the Lillard trade has failed, and it may still be too early for that.

Fortunately for Milwaukee, there are 80 more regular-season games to set things right. Random losses happen, and they can come against lesser competition. How the Bucks bounce back will tell us a lot more about their chances of success.