The Chicago Bulls' strategy in Game 5 against the Milwaukee Bucks was quite clear: live or die by the 3-pointer. Unfortunately for them, it's the latter that ended up happening.

Chicago attempted a total of 52 triples in the Wednesday showdown. However, they made just 15 of those shots for a 28.9 percent shooting clip. While one would wonder why they didn't stop shooting from deep given that they were not doing well from that distance, it was apparently part of their plan.

Simply put, the Bulls needed their shots to work if they wanted any chance to win. Head coach Billy Donovan admitted as much following their 116-110 loss, emphasizing that they had to take those shots because of the Bucks' defense and the key absences of Zach LaVine and Alex Caruso.

The 52 attempts are the most in Bulls history in any game, an it would have been a different story had they made at least 40 percent of those shots. But then again, facing a healthy and complete Bucks team headlined by an unstoppable Giannis Antetokounmpo was already a tall order for the Chicago franchise.

While the Bulls did well in the regular season–even topping the East at one point–it has been made quite clear that they are not yet ready to play against the top dogs. Of course the good thing is they have a solid foundation to continue competing in the playoffs, but they certainly need to make some roster tweaks to get to that next level.

After all, at the end of the day, praying that your 3-point shots would fall in just won't cut it.