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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida – Teams as good as the Milwaukee Bucks are never swept in the NBA playoffs.
That may change on Sunday (Monday Manila time).
Milwaukee is on the brink of elimination, trailing the Miami Heat, 3-0, in their Eastern Conference semifinal series. The Heat can close it, and make a bit of history, when they look to finish a second straight sweep in these playoffs.
“The work is not done yet,” said Jimmy Butler of Miami.
The Bucks are the number one seed in the East; The No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, the Los Angeles Lakers, is also in a little trouble, although it faces a situation that is not as dire as the mess Milwaukee is in right now. The Lakers lost Game One of their Western semifinal series to Houston 112-97 on Friday, with Game Two scheduled for Sunday night.
“It’s just a game … I have to get ready for Game 2,” Rockets guard James Harden said. “We will have to be even better in the second game.”
The Bucks have to be better in Game 4 or not.
They had Game 3 on their hands on Friday, leading by 14 in the third quarter and by 12 at the beginning of the fourth quarter. And then Butler happened: He scored 17 points in the fourth, the Heat outscored the Bucks, 40-13, in the period and Miami won, 115-100, to take a 3-0 lead.
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Before Friday, teams that had lost exactly 12 points in the fourth quarter of a game this season had lost 39 of 43 times, or 91%. In the playoffs, teams leading by 12 or more points after three quarters were 131-1 since April 2016.
But the Bucks couldn’t finish and are now at the 0-3 hole, from which no NBA team has successfully climbed.
“It might as well make history while you do it, cap off a great season here,” Bucks guard George Hill said. “It’s the first time in NBA history we’ve played in a bubble. It’s the first time a team can go back down from 3-0. We have to trust each other, keep believing. The season is not over. . “
The Bucks were 56-17 in the regular season, which translates to a .767 winning percentage, the 37th-best for a single season in NBA history. Some of the 36 teams ahead of them on that list lost in the first round of the playoffs, but none were swept.
The team with the best record that saw its playoff career end in a sweep was the 1948-49 Rochester Royals, before the shot clock and even before the NBA was a thing, then it was called the BAA. They lost 2-0 to the Minneapolis Lakers in the division finals.
The Royals were 45-15 (.750) that year. The teams with the best records that were swept in a best-of-seven series were the 1997-98 Los Angeles Lakers and 2016-17 San Antonio Spurs, both 61-21 (.744). Each was swept in the Western finals, the Lakers for Utah, the Spurs for Golden State.
If the Bucks don’t win on Sunday, they’ll get a title they didn’t want – the best team, in terms of records, will be swept anyway.
“You have to dig deep,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “You have to lean on your character, lean on your competitiveness, just focus on getting a game, getting Game Four. That’s where our mindset should be.”
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