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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida – Jimmy Butler made two free throws with no time remaining and the Miami Heat blew a six-point lead in the closing seconds but found a way to beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 116-114, on Wednesday night. (Thursday, Manila Time) for a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Butler rattled in the first, which was the only one that mattered, then made the second for the final margin. He was fouled by Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo with about a tenth of a second left on a jump shot from the left corner.
The umpires sent Butler to the line, with no one else on the line, as some of the Heat’s teammates knelt in the middle of the court.
“In the umpires’ judgment, the foul occurred, I suppose, at some point when he landed,” Milwaukee coach Mike Budenholzer said. “In the officials’ opinion, it was enough to justify a foul.”
And so the Heat became the first No. 5 seed in NBA history to take a 2-0 series lead over a No. 1 seed.
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“I knew I was going to do one,” Butler said. “That’s all we needed.”
Goran Dragic scored 23 points, Tyler Herro added 17 from the bench and Jae Crowder had 16 for Miami.
Bam Adebayo scored 15 points, Butler and Duncan Robinson each had 13 and Kelly Olynyk added 11 for Miami, which is 6-0 this postseason.
Antetokounmpo had 29 points and 14 rebounds for the Bucks, who trailed by six with 27 seconds left and tied. Khris Middleton scored 23 points for Milwaukee, the last three to come when Dragic was called for a foul with 4.3 seconds left.
Milwaukee received 16 each from Brook Lopez and Eric Bledsoe and 14 from George Hill.
Miami’s lead was 90-86 going into the fourth and Milwaukee had the lead on the first possession of the fourth quarter.
Middleton was fouled on a 3-point attempt, made the first two free throws and the rebound of the third was controlled by the Bucks. Kyle Korver hit a 3-pointer on that rebound to cap a five-point possession for Milwaukee, which was back in the lead for the first time since 14-13.
The Heat were unfazed. They scored 13 of the next 15 points to not only regain the lead, but took it to 103-93 on a triple from Crowder with 7:50 left.
Milwaukee threw 21 free throws in the first half to Miami’s 11, but interestingly, it was the Bucks who had players in foul trouble at halftime.
Middleton committed his third foul just 26 seconds into the second quarter and Antetokounmpo received his third foul with 4:17 left at the half. They both played a bit more in the fourth, then were dropped with 1:07 to play, and the Bucks were no longer willing to risk either of them getting a fourth so soon.
Free throws were a big factor: Miami shot 55% at the half and made nine 3-pointers, but the lead was just 66-60 at intermission.
Antetokounmpo was called up for his fourth early in the third, when Butler took over, or so it seemed. The decision was overturned after review, so the reigning MVP had the fourth foul erased.
And the physicality just kept increasing. Adebayo fell to the ground several times only in the third quarter, one of them checked to see if he complied with the flagrant state; It wasn’t, but that review showed the umpires enough to hit Butler with a technical foul.
At the end of the third, Kyle Korver closed too aggressively on a 3-point attempt by Andre Iguodala, who landed on his foot and twisted his right ankle. Flagrante-1 was called out, Iguodala limped to the line to make two of three free throws and then limped to be evaluated.
TIP-INS
Heat: Dragic has scored at least 20 points in six straight playoff games. It’s the 12th such streak in Heat history; Dwyane Wade had six, LeBron James had the other five. … Butler, who had 40 points in Game 1, didn’t reach the 10-point mark in Game 2 until 3:32 left.
Bucks: Antetokounmpo, who was 4 of 12 from the free throw line in Game 1, started 4 of 5 from the line in Game 2. He finished 9 of 12. … Milwaukee outrebounded Miami 50-38.
MISSING IN 3
The Bucks scored just four 3-pointers in the first half, but they actually had 18 points from beyond the arc, not 12. Miami fouled Lopez on 3-point attempts twice in a 26-second span of the first quarter (he hit two of three free throws in the first, converted the second into a four-point play) and fouled Korver on another three-point attempt early in the second quarter. Korver made all three free throws.
5 ON 1
Since the league moved to the 16-team format in 1984, only four No. 1 seeds have lost the first two games of a first or second round series. Phoenix (1993, in a best of five) and Boston (2017) rallied to win first-round matchups; Toronto was swept by Cleveland in the 2018 Eastern semifinals. And a No. 5 seed has never taken a 2-0 lead over a No. 1 seed – until now.
UNTIL NEXT TIME
The third game is on Friday.
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