Photo via Twitter / @NBA
A touch foul with no time remaining.
That’s all that separated the Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat on Wednesday night, in what almost ended up being a dramatic comeback victory. In fairness, it probably should not have gotten to that point, but nevertheless, a controversial call became the story of the night, with the Heat topping the Bucks, 116-114.
Much of the themes of Game One of the Eastern Conference semifinal series carried over into Wednesday, with the Heat coming out strong on defense, and the Bucks looking flat because of it. Miami did a solid job of shutting down Giannis Antetokounmpo on offense, with the Greek Freak not scoring his first points until the 4:18 mark of the first quarter. The frustration from Giannis carried over to the rest of the team, who offensively struggled to get things going whenever a bit of momentum started in their favor.
For Miami, the offense stayed hot. Goran Dragic led the team with 23 points, followed up by Milwaukee native Tyler Herro, who put together 17 points off the bench, logging some significant minutes on Wednesday. Miami had seven players in double figures against Milwaukee, as the depth of their team helped them maintain a steady lead for most of the night.
Then the fourth quarter happened. The Bucks started off down by four points, and traded buckets with the Heat for the majority of the period. Miami increased the deficit to six points with less than 30 seconds on the clock, all but assuring that they would take a 2-0 series lead. A quick basket, followed by Jimmy Butler forcing a pass that led to a sloppy turnover and layup from Brook Lopez cut the lead to two. Butler was later fouled and made one of two free throws to put Miami up, but still able to be tied. A timeout advanced the ball to half court, and on the ensuing inbound play, Khris Middleton was fouled shooting a three-pointer, and made all three free throws to tie things up with 4.3 seconds remaining. Overtime looked certain.
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The final play of the game put the ball in Jimmy Butler’s hands on the left side of the basket. He managed to get a contested shot off, which rattled out, but was fouled on the shot. Replays showed that Giannis Antetokounmpo did make contact with Butler in the air, but only after the ball had already been released. It’s still a foul by definition, but given the circumstances, a very tough call. Butler made both of the free throws with time expired, though he only needed one to seal the victory. It was a bad break for Milwaukee, who now head into Friday’s Game Three with a two-game deficit in the series.
While the Bucks didn’t necessarily show signs of dominance on Wednesday, the magnitude of deciding a playoff game on a touch foul is just part of an out-of-the-ordinary season for Milwaukee. You can watch the Bucks try to get a badly-needed first win of the series on Friday at 5:30 p.m., with coverage on TNT.
