With a 116-111 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday, the Chicago Bulls finally emerged from their winter doldrums – and found their footing by changing their offensive focus.

The Bucks were somewhat weakened when Giannis Antetokounmpo was ruled out for the fourth straight game due to illness. However, that didn’t lessen the challenge for the Bulls, who were unable to maintain their lead after a strong start in the first quarter.

By halftime, their 13-point lead had dwindled to two, a familiar sight for a Bulls team struggling to establish and defend advantages.

A 9-0 run in the third quarter briefly put the Bucks ahead by three. From then on it was an exchange of blows.

Damian Lillard single-handedly managed an 11-0 run and put the Bucks ahead by four. The young core of the Bulls roster – Josh Giddey, Patrick Williams and Coby White – stormed back with a flurry of clutch baskets. And the Bulls managed to win only their fifth win of the season at the United Center.

“We were a pretty darn good away team and a terrible home team,” guard Zach LaVine said. “If we can play here in front of the fans with the same aggressiveness that we play away from home, then so be it. You should be a good home team that has the home crowd behind you. I think we showed that tonight.”

Here are six takeaways from the win.

1. Josh Giddey recovered from injury.

After missing the last four games with a sprained ankle, Giddey made an immediate impact, recording his second triple-double in a Bulls uniform with 23 points, 10 assists and a team-high 15 rebounds, including two offensive boards.

Giddey wasn’t always the right guy for the Bulls. Early in the season, coach Billy Donovan began substituting point guards late in games in favor of players like Ayo Dosunmu, who was sidelined Saturday with a right calf strain.

But in the final minutes against the Bucks, Donovan decided to corner Giddey again. He earned that trust for at least one more game, darting over and around the screens to provide more consistent defense and hitting a 3-pointer with 71 seconds left to give the Bulls a one-point lead.

Giddey delivered five points, four rebounds and an assist in the final five minutes, helping the Bulls to their seventh win of the season.

2. Coby White drove a shift to the rim.

The Bulls have become increasingly reliant on the 3-pointer this season – especially against teams like the Bucks, who use their size advantage to put the Bulls in their place. But with Antetokounmpo out, the Bulls took a different approach.

Her 36 3-point attempts were one of the lowest totals of the season for the Bulls, who averaged 44 shots from behind the arc. They settled for a rare night in which they outscored from 3-point range, scoring 14 points to the Bucks’ 15.

Instead, the Bulls attacked the ball while vulnerable without Antetokounmpo, finding Nikola Vučević down low who pushed him hard to the basket in transition. They outscored the Bucks 56-42 on the season, a rarity this season.

White (22 points) led the charge to the rim. While he still can’t quite locate his 3-point shot and is going 2 of 6 from behind the arc as he works to hit a cold shot from distance, that didn’t matter Saturday.

After Giddey’s crucial late three-pointer, White drove up the middle and drew three defenders before sending the ball out. This play highlighted the importance of White’s pressure at the rim, which repeatedly put the Bucks’ defense out of position.

3. Matas Buzelis hosted a block party.

Buzelis could be the best shot blocker on the Bulls roster. The rookie recorded two blocks in his first six minutes against the Bucks, moving into first place on the team with 24 blocks despite ranking ninth in minutes played.

Shot blocking is one of the Bulls defense’s many weaknesses – they average the eighth-fewest blocks in the league – but Buzelis offers a promising future as the team’s rim protector. The freshman is developing a keen understanding of how to use his 6-foot wingspan to influence shots, especially when pivoting away from the ball.

Buzelis finished the game with two points and three rebounds in 13 minutes in addition to his two blocks.

4. Nikola Vučević has reached a milestone.

Vučević tied Giddey with a team-high 23 points and became the second center in league history with at least 16,000 points and 800 3-pointers in his career. The Bucks’ Brook Lopez is the only other center to achieve this feat.

This combination reflects the adaptability Vučević has demonstrated throughout his career: He has evolved from a rim-focused center who rarely shoots 3s to a long-range sniper who has provided the Bulls with a 3-point range. Precision (45.6%) leads. He went 3 of 7 from behind the arc against the Bucks.

5. Ayo Dosunmu is out with a calf strain.