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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida: Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat are heading to the Eastern Conference finals.
Giannis Antetokounmpo could only watch.
The fifth-seeded Heat finished in a surprise from the NBA’s best regular-season team on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila), beating the Milwaukee Bucks 103-94 in Game 5 of their Eastern semi-final series, while Antetokounmpo , the league’s reigning MVP, was unable to play because of a sprained right ankle.
“We have deep respect for that franchise and it is unfortunate that Giannis cannot play tonight,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.
Butler and Goran Dragic each scored 17 points for the Heat, which won the series 4-1 and will face Boston or Toronto when the last four of the NBA begin next week. It’s the first time Miami has participated in the Eastern Final since 2014, and the first time Butler has gone this deep in the playoffs.
“It means a lot,” Butler said. “But that’s not my goal. That is not the goal of my boys. That is not the goal of the organization. We want to win ‘that’. We want a championship and I think that is what we are focused on. The next eight will be much more difficult than the previous eight. We know. But we are ready for them. “
Jae Crowder scored 16, Tyler Herro scored 14, Bam Adebayo had 13 and Kelly Olynyk had 12 for the Heat.
Khris Middleton had 23 points for Milwaukee, which had 15 points and 14 rebounds from Brook Lopez. Donte DiVincenzo scored 17, Wesley Matthews and Marvin Williams each had 11 and Eric Bledsoe had nine assists for the Bucks.
The decision not to let Antetokounmpo play was made about 45 minutes before the game.
“I wanted to play,” Antetokounmpo said. “You know I wanted to play. I know I wanted to play. My coach knows I wanted to play, but at the end of the day, the organization put my health above Game 5. That’s great. ”
Antetokounmpo did what he could: cheering from the bench at all times, bouncing for teammates during pregame warm-ups and again at halftime, offering words during time-outs.
And the Bucks were inspired from the jump.
But the NBA’s No. 1 overall seed in these playoffs, the league’s best 56-17 in the regular season, just didn’t get enough. A very memorable journey ended, after a season in which Milwaukee likely had a back-to-back MVP, the best record in the game, and led a boycott of players early in these playoffs to reiterate the main mission of this rebooted season, which is to use the NBA platform to highlight the need to end racial injustice.
“You always want to make those expectations come true, but the relationships, the character, what this group did… it would be great if you could have both, but I think if you’re going to choose one, I’d like to be with him. guys with a lot of character that represent something, ”said Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer.
Milwaukee opened the game on a 28-15 streak, putting Miami on their heels from the opening minutes. DiVincenzo got the call to start for Antetokounmpo and scored eight of Milwaukee’s first 16 points, Matthews had nine late in the quarter and the Bucks got off to a promising start.
Miami answered that start with a 30-9 run of its own, capped by three free throws by Olynyk with 4:36 left at the half for a 45-37 Heat lead.
Milwaukee didn’t let the Heat get away, though, not then or in the third when Miami pushed the lead to 12 after Crowder’s 3-pointer with 3:07 left. It took the Bucks just 50 seconds to rip off seven points in a row, and they stayed close from there.
In the end, Miami only had a little more. They became the lowest-seeded team to reach the Eastern Final since eighth-seeded New York in 1999.
“We want people to keep telling us,” Butler said.
Suggestions
Heat: This is Miami’s seventh trip to the conference finals since 2005, the most of all in the East and the most teams in the NBA in that span; San Antonio has also had seven such trips since 2005.… Miami survived on a night in which it had 22 turnovers.
Bucks: The NBA moved to the 16-team playoff format in 1984 and this is only the sixth time in those 37 seasons that the No. 1 seed has not reached the East finals. … The Bucks come out of the bubble with a $ 2,020,431 stake in the NBA’s annual playoff group. They could have split $ 6,827,848 if they had won the title.
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