""Thankfully, we're not on the road," Bucks coach Scott Skiles was saying about an hour before the game Saturday night.

To have taken in the scene around the Bradley Center would've ran counter to Skiles' comfort-zone notion.

There was so much red in the streets that it seemed as if a Badgers hockey game had broken out. But this was the red of the Chicago Bulls, and their fans were wearing it inside and out of every gin joint and eatery between the arena and the river.

It was almost like the Bulls' dynasty days, when Phil Jackson would roll 'em up just before the game with just enough time for MJ and the guys to pile off the bus and beat the Bucks, many to few. But there were so many Bulls bandwagon followers back then that they were expected to take over the town, sort of like their sickly baseball cousins.

Years later, the scene was almost the same because the Bulls, in different guise, are once again the team to beat in the East. It is something the Bucks probably need to do at some point to prove they are worthy of loitering at the playoff periphery as the lockout-shortened season begins to take on substance."