MILWAUKEE -- The Milwaukee Bucks were prepared for the Chicago Bulls to bring their best on Thursday. But when it actually happened, well, to paraphrase Forrest Gump, the Bucks just didn't have enough rocks.

After capturing the attention of the NBA world by surviving two straight elimination games, and in doing so regenerating their fan base in Milwaukee, the Bucks were outclassed, outmatched and out-everythinged in a season-ending 120-66 thumping in Game 6 on Thursday. The Bulls scored the first eight points of the game and never looked back, eventually rolling up a 54-point margin of victory that was 18 points worse than the previous worst loss in Milwaukee playoff history. Only three teams have lost a playoff game by more points.

In some respects, the only real surprise was the breadth of the rout. Chicago entered the series as a heavy favorite and with Cleveland waiting in the wings for the second round, the Bulls were highly incentivized to dispatch upstart Milwaukee on Thursday.

"Chicago, you tip your cap to them," Bucks coach Jason Kidd said. "They came out and jumped on us. We just could never recover from that."

The Bulls overmatched the Bucks from the opening tip. Chicago scored the first eight points in just 68 seconds, rolled up 17 in the first five minutes and stifled Milwaukee on the defensive end. Chicago led by 18 after one, 32 at halftime and the final margin was its largest. For the Bucks, it was a night when things seemed like they couldn't get worse, yet they did.

Seasons end that way sometimes, but that doesn't mean the stinging loss served no purpose for a Bucks team that believes even brighter days lie ahead.

"After the game I wanted to congratulate the guys on on a great year," Kidd said. "Not just a great series, but for putting themselves in this position.

"[Now we have to] learn from this situation. I don't want to say for motivation during the summer, but [for] them to get better. Because they're not a secret any more."

You figured the grind-it-out Bucks would go down fighting. But as the game unraveled, the Bucks' fight was less rah-rah Knute Rockne, and more frustrated Manny Pacquiao. Perhaps it was inevitable as the end of Bucks' season appeared on the horizon, but the game turned testy in the second quarter. And each team's reaction to gentlemanly discord was emblematic of the difference in experience between the teams.

Take veteran Mike Dunleavy, who when he wasn't lighting up the Bucks from the perimeter, was getting under the skin of his tenderfoot opponents. Early in the game, Dunleavy appeared to strike Michael Carter-Williams in the face, and the Bucks' point guard headed for the locker room before returning later in the quarter.

"For anyone that's been there before, that's frustrating," Dunleavy said. "I can understand that. Things happen."

In the second quarter, Dunleavy got Giannis Antetokounmpo in the throat, then raced down the floor for a 3-point look. Consider that Antetokounmpo has developed a reputation as one of the nicest players in the NBA. Just 20, he emerged from the lower level of basketball in Greece to become an NBA first-rounder. Along his way to possible stardom, he has generated cute stories of naivety, such as his horror over the waste of leftover spreads in the locker room.

Cute would not be the way to describe his tackle of Dunleavy after he shot. On the night of the NFL draft, Antetokounmpo may have established himself as a safety prospect. He may have lost his balance while trying to avoid Carter-Williams' foot, but nevertheless he blocked Dunleavy into the first row of seats. As Dunleavy sank the foul shots, Antetokoumpo headed for the showers with a Flagrant-2 foul call and an ejection.

"It wasn't very smart," Kidd said. "We gotta learn from other people's mistakes. You have to pay attention. He'll learn from that mistake he made tonight."

Even if you emptied your thesaurus of synonyms for blowout, you still couldn't do justice for what happened to the Bucks. The final box should be duplicated and used as wallpaper in a Milwaukee haunted house.

A few tidbits: Not a single Buck scored in double figures. The Bucks were outscored 50-20 in the paint, and 22-5 in second-chance points. Deep reserve Johnny O'Bryant came off the bench in the fourth quarter to make three field goals. Congratulations Johnny -- you tied for the team high in made buckets. At least for the most part, the extracurricular shenanigans subsided during the second half as the teams emptied their benches.

"It was the worst game at the worst possible day," said O.J. Mayo, who picked up a technical in the second quarter by charging off the bench at a timeout to yell at Chicago's Jimmy Butler. "They came out swinging, they came out punching and we couldn’t recover."

The Bucks' mantra all season has been to get better with each game. Thursday's loss wasn't up to that task, but the future still appears bright for the Bucks. They added 26 wins to last season's league-low win total, good enough for a 6-seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. And they challenged the Bulls possession for possession for the better part of five games, before Thursday's rout.

"I think we got better," Kidd said. "I think the whole experience of being in the playoffs, you can't take it away from those guys."

Most importantly, the Bucks established an identity. With a talented young core of long-armed, athletic defenders, Milwaukee finished second in the league in defensive efficiency. They led the league in forcing turnovers. And while the offense was below average, Kidd got his team to buy into an egalitarian, ball-sharing approach.

"Especially with the year we had last year, it was a great year for us," Zaza Pachulia said. "We are at a good point where we can build from it."

While Antetokounmpo, Carter-Williams, Khris Middleton and John Henson look to improve the organization from within, they can also look forward to the return of Jabari Parker. The rookie forward from Chicago, who played just 25 games before going down with a knee injury, was in uniform and shooting around on the court before the game, a welcome sight for a team now looking ahead.

"We had a great season, especially coming from 15 wins last season," Middleton said. "This season, we have to learn from it, get better, move on and use this playoff experience as motivation to get back."

For now, the Bucks are smarting from such a flat performance against the Bulls, who have emerged as the benchmark for Milwaukee to target. After the 10th game of the season between the teams, gains have been made. For one thing, the crowd at the Bradley Center was decidedly pro-Bucks, not something that you could take for granted in the past.

"It was huge for everybody -- the players, the coaching staff, the ownership, the city," Pachulia said. "With the situation we are in with the arena, for the fans as well."

It was encouraging that those fans remained revved up on Thursday even as the Bulls stretched out their lead, and stretched and stretched. When Milwaukee reserve Tyler Ennis drained a 3-pointer to end the third quarter, the crowd went nuts. The basket bought the Bucks within 39 points.

The pain from the loss, the enthusiasm of the fans, the urgency of the Bulls -- these were all valuable final lessons for a Bucks team that has been such a quick study under Kidd. Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said he fully expects the Bucks to be "a very dangerous team" next season. Kidd would agree.

"This group of young men played at a very high level," Kidd said. "A lot higher than anybody thought they could.

"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. We'll see how they get better."