Photo via Twitter / @MiamiHeat
The Milwaukee Bucks’ season came to an end on Tuesday night, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort. The Miami Heat simply could not miss when it mattered most.
The team was playing in a far less than ideal situation, down 3-1 in the Eastern Conference semifinal series, after an important win on Sunday kept their playoff hopes alive. However, no team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in NBA playoff history, and Milwaukee unfortunately could not make history in that regard this year. The Bucks were also playing without a probable repeat MVP in Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was out after spraining his right ankle in Game Four. Fortunately, Milwaukee’s bench came to play, but Miami simply had more offensive firepower on Tuesday.
Things looked promising early, with the Bucks going on a 28-15 run in the first quarter. Khris Middleton led the way with 23 points, and Milwaukee was also aided by Wes Matthews and Donte DiVincenzo, a pair of players who had been quieter on the offensive side of the ball throughout the series. Five Bucks players finished in double figures, but it simply wasn’t enough to match Miami.
For the Heat, it was former Marquette forwards Jimmy Butler and Jae Crowder stealing the show. Butler has been consistently strong in the series, but Crowder’s shooting from behind the three-point arc when it was needed most separated the Heat from the Bucks. 12 of Crowder’s 16 points on Tuesday came from three-point range. Milwaukee native and rookie Tyler Herro also came up big for the Heat, leading the bench with 14 points and three big three-pointers at important moments. The Heat shot nearly 48% from the field, compared to Milwaukee’s 36%.
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With about 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, there was an extra sense of urgency that kicked in, with Milwaukee picking up their defensive pressure to close the gap on Miami. The Bucks would cut the Heat’s lead to as little as four points with two minutes remaining, thanks to an alley-oop from Eric Bledsoe to Brook Lopez, but that’s as close as things would come down the stretch. Middleton and DiVincenzo would also foul out in the closing moments of the fourth, taking the life out of the Bucks’ chances. Miami would move on to the Eastern Conference finals, facing the winner of the Toronto Raptors-Boston Celtics semifinal series.
For the Bucks, their off-season begins nearly a calendar year after the season began. There are loads of questions for the team moving forward, with Giannis Antetokounmpo a year away from free agency. Due to the pandemic, the 2020-2021 NBA season is slated to begin in December, making for a chaotic couple of months ahead. Prior to the loss on Tuesday, this was a Bucks team that came together to make history in many ways, but that unfortunately does not include an NBA championship this year.
