By Rick Braun, Special to OnMilwaukee.com   Published May 01, 2015 at 5:46 AM Photography: David Bernacchi

All the excitement of a chance to force a Game 7 in their playoff series with the Chicago Bulls melted away quite quickly for the Milwaukee Bucks Thursday night.

The game started out ugly and proceeded into the kind of a nightmare that makes grown men afraid to go to sleep. As with all nightmares, the game even had a villain – former Buck Mike Dunleavy.

In the end, the Bucks’ 120-66 loss was the worst margin in franchise history.

Maybe the only positive was that the crowd was decidedly a Milwaukee bunch, after Games 3 and 4 had a huge mix of Bulls fans. But Bucks fans never got anything to cheer about.

Hardly the way the season should have ended after Monday’s Game 5 victory created so much optimism.

In fact, it was so bad – and so maddening considering Dunleavy, who also is the son of a former Bucks coach, showed up in thug clothing – that reviewing all of the positives of 41 regular-season victories and two inspiring playoff victories seems rather hollow.

"It was the worst game at the worst possible day," Bucks guard O.J. Mayo said. "They came out swinging, they came out punching and we couldn’t recover."

Dunleavy’s punch to Michael Carter-Williams’ face on the Bucks’ second possession of the night was missed by referees, but not missed by thousands of Bucks fans on Twitter and other social network sites.

Carter-Williams, the Bucks’ best player in Monday’s thrilling Game 5 victory, had to go to the locker room, and the Bulls – with Dunleavy scoring 19 first-half-points – kept drilling the Bucks with gut punches the rest of the night. At least those punches were figurative.

Carter-Williams returned with just under two minutes left in the first and the Bucks down, 32-16. Things only got worse from there.

The Bucks got under the Bulls’ skin in Games 4 and 5 by playing a hard-nosed, defensive style. But when punch came to shove Thursday night, the Bulls landed all the blows.

Maybe the tone wasn’t set by Dunleavy’s shot on Carter-Williams. Maybe it was set by Joakim Noah’s offensive rebound on the first shot of the night. That set up a Dunleavy three-pointer, and the Bulls bolted to an 8-0 lead before the Bucks knew what hit them. They never got closer than six the rest of the way, as the Bulls led, 34-16, after one and 65-33 at the half.

"We knew they were going to come out with everything they had," guard Khris Middleton said. "We just didn’t have responses to it. We couldn’t get going offensively, we couldn’t get stops and it just got ugly from there."

The second quarter featured Dunleavy throwing Giannis Antetokounmpo to the floor while screening out for a rebound. Antetokounmpo retaliated at the other end with a shoulder block that sent Dunleavy tumbling into the seats and NFL general managers scuffling for information on the young Greek’s football pedigree with that league’s draft in progress.

And yet Dunleavy even came out on top of that scuffle. He made the three-pointer before contact, and Antetokounmpo was sent to the locker room for the night, ejected for a Flagrant 2 foul.

Late in the third quarter the Bulls still had the Bucks doubled at 88-44. The only interesting thing about the second half was some retaliation by Carter-Williams, taking a swipe at Dunleavy and earning a technical. Dunleavy was called for an offensive foul seconds before Carter-Williams’ swipe.

Afterward, Dunleavy played as though he had no idea what anyone was talking about when the first punch to Carter-Williams’ face was brought up.

"Not sure. I don't recall that," Dunleavy said. "I'm sure they'll look at a bunch of stuff."

He was referring to the league, which may end up doling out a suspension or fine.

For the Bucks, there wasn’t much to talk about afterward other than what they accomplished in a season that saw them improve by 26 games and earn a surprise playoff berth.

"My thought after the game was I wanted to congratulate the guys on a great year," Bucks coach Jason Kidd said. "Not just a great series, but a great year for putting themselves in this position."

While there was disappointment in Thursday’s performance, Kidd wasn’t about to let it cloud seven months of phenomenal progress.

"We got better," Kidd said. "I think the whole experience of being in the playoffs, you can’t take that away from those guys no matter if you lose by 40 or if you lose by one. It’s a loss. That’s it. You move on. There is no back-sliding, back-pedaling.

"This group of young men played at a very high level – a lot higher than anybody thought they could in this room, and they believed that they could win Game 6. They just came up short. It’s a great opportunity for them to get better. They’re still going to be an exciting team next year. There will be a lot of focus on them. They’re not going to be a surprise. So we’ll see how we get better next year."

A season that started with hardly any expectations, then saw the loss of No. 2 overall pick Jabari Parker and the mystifying departure of Larry Sanders, ended with a thud.

But the ride was memorable.

"We’re going to remember this," said center Zaza Pachulia. "We’re going to remember it in a good way, and I’m excited about the future for this team."