Milwaukee Bucks Grades, Reactions To 91-79 Win Over The Miami Heat

Backed by another strong game from Khris Middleton, the Milwaukee Bucks won their third straight game, beating the Miami Heat 91-79. 

The Milwaukee Bucks are finally playing like the team we expected to see at the beginning of the season. The Bucks play of late has improved along with Khris Middleton’s emergence. He’s been truly spectacular and has even creeped into the All-Star conversation, albeit as a long-shot.

But another, less heralded, area of vast improvement is the defense.

Tuesday night the Bucks held the Heat to just 79 points–the lowest total the Bucks have allowed since November 11th when they allowed 74 to the Denver Nuggets. They held Miami to just 36.5% shooting and 22.7% (5-22) from three.

There’s still a long way to go defensively, but we’re starting to see a unit that communicates, switches, and gets back in transition.

It’s from that defense that the Bucks were able to open up their lead in the second quarter.

Leading 37-33 with 3:55 left in the first half the Bucks clearly looked like the superior team, but due to some poor decisions and bad bounces the Heat were right there.

The Bucks defense forced five turnovers to close out the half, as they stretched their lead to ten.

Then in the third quarter the Bucks took that advantage and blew it wide open–blitzing the Heat with an 18-4 run from which the Heat never recovered.

The win gives the Bucks their second straight road win (both decisive), and closes the gap between them and the eighth seed to just four games.

More importantly, it seems that something has clicked with this team. They’ve figured out a formula that has been evading them all season. If they can maintain this momentum maybe, just maybe, this season’s narrative will shift from “utter disaster” to “Fear the Deer”.

For more coverage from the Milwaukee Bucks big road win in the sunshine state check out our Bucks grades and reactions.

Next: Reactions: The Good