Chicago Bulls head coach Jim Boylen admitted his team did not fight back against adversity once they found themselves trailing the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday.

The Bucks were out to the races in the first quarter, building an 11-point lead, but the Bulls responded in the second to get within three points by halftime. That fight wouldn't last long enough, as the Bucks, the best team in the league, pushed their cushion to 18 by the end of the third, which signified the land of no return in a 123-102 blowout loss.

“We’ve got to respond better in situations,’’ Boylen said of the Bulls' poor second half, according to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. “We have layups and dunks, open threes. I thought we hung our head a little bit. We haven’t done that in a while. We’ve played through those situations, and [Monday] we didn’t.’’

The Bulls did a good job slowing down reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, but The Greek Freak found his teammates early and often, as Khris Middleton, Eric Bledsoe, and Brook Lopez all found openings within the Bulls' defense.

“They executed their game plan, and we struggled to score,” said Boylen. “We’ll look at it, work on it and grow with it.’’

The Bulls have one of the best defenses in the league, but they have struggled to score when it counts. A letdown like the one the team saw in the third quarter of Monday's game came after a lack of focus allowed the Bucks to go off for 40 points.

Boylen has struggled to keep his team fully engaged, but part of that has to do with the youth and lack of experience in games of this kind.