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Players on the bench including the Milwaukee Bucks’ Khris Middleton (22), Giannis Antetokounmpo (center), and Donte DiVincenzo (0) watch the final seconds of the second half of an NBA conference semifinal basketball game against the Miami Heat on Tuesday, September. 8, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The Heat won the game, eliminating the Bucks from the playoffs. | AP Photo
MILWAUKEE – Posting the NBA’s best record once again couldn’t help the Milwaukee Bucks win a conference title, much less a league championship.
The main favorite in the playoffs will spend the rest of the postseason wondering why he could never regain his form before the Disney bubble hiatus.
Milwaukee was 53-12 years old when the coronavirus pandemic caused gambling to go on hiatus for 4 1/2 months. The Bucks were 8-10 after the season resumed in Florida, including a 4-1 loss in a best-of-7 Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Miami Heat.
They never seemed to adapt as well as other teams to playing without fans.
“At the end of the day, every team went through it,” said Giannis Antetokounmpo, who missed all of Game 5 and most of Game 4 with a sprained right ankle. “It wasn’t just us. But maybe it affected us a little more ”.
The questions now turn to the future of Antetokounmpo, who won the MVP last season and is a finalist for the award this year. The 25-year-old forward’s contract will expire after the 2020-21 season.
Milwaukee can offer Antetokounmpo a supermax extension that would allow him to receive up to 35 percent of the salary cap with an 8 percent increase each year from the deal.
The supermax was designed to help franchises keep their superstar players by giving them offers that other teams couldn’t match, although it hasn’t always worked that way. For example, Anthony Davis was eligible for a supermax extension with New Orleans last year, but instead demanded a trade that ultimately led to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Antetokounmpo’s comments after Tuesday’s game offered Bucks fans at least cause for encouragement.
“Hopefully we can learn from this and improve as a team and come back and hopefully build a culture in Milwaukee that for many years we can come here and compete every year for a championship,” Antetokounmpo said.
The Bucks have achieved the NBA’s best regular-season record in consecutive years, but they are still seeking their first title since 1971. They haven’t even won a conference championship since 1974.
Last season, the Bucks blew a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals by losing four straight games to Toronto. This year, the Bucks trailed 3-0 to Miami and lost a double-digit lead in Game 3 as they were outscored 40-13 in the final period, the largest fourth-quarter point differential in playoff history. of the NBA.
Milwaukee showed their moxie by winning Game 4 in overtime even after Antetokounmpo was injured in the second quarter. The Bucks didn’t have enough offense without him in Game 5 and lost 103-94
“It was an incredible ride,” guard Wesley Matthews said. “You hate to see it end like this, but that’s life. You just have to reflect, improve and try again. “
The Bucks made history early in the postseason by refusing to speak for Game 5 of their first-round series with Orlando as a form of protest following the Jacob Blake police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Other teams followed the Bucks’ lead, prompting a league-wide postponement of the playoffs.
Milwaukee coach Mike Budenholzer dismissed the notion that the Bucks’ calls for social justice may have distracted them in their push for the playoffs. He praised the team for “being on the right side of history.”
“You have to fight for the things that you believe in,” Budenholzer said. “We were certainly in the middle of that. It was significant. But it is only part of life. I’d say it could have helped us. It may have helped us. I know it helped us as humans. “
The Bucks, ultimately, may have encountered a bad matchup.
Milwaukee was 1-2 against Miami and 55-15 against everyone else during the regular season. In Milwaukee’s only regular-season win over the Heat, the Bucks needed to rebound from 23 points against a Miami team that played without Jimmy Butler or Goran Dragic.
“I think the guys have learned a lot about themselves and are going to get better,” guard Donte DiVincenzo said. “This is not the end”.
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