Following a late arrival to Miami on a brutal back-to-back, the Milwaukee Bucks looked far from their usual selves in a defeat to the Heat on Saturday.
The Milwaukee Bucks produced one of their worst offensive performances of the year, yet in many ways they deserve a lot of credit considering the circumstances surrounding Saturday’s loss to the Miami Heat.
After a Friday night win in Boston, the Bucks faced what can be described as one of the more ridiculously grueling back-to-backs from a travel perspective that any NBA team will have to face this season.
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If there was any doubt over whether that inevitable fatigue would have any real impact on Milwaukee’s play, a first quarter in which the Bucks scored just eight points provided a resounding answer.
The third quarter would also leave the Bucks fighting against a major deficit, but in both the second and fourth quarters, Mike Budenholzer’s team showed impressive guts and played some stellar defense to ensure they were able to stick around and really challenge for a win in the game’s closing minutes.
Against a rested Heat team whose last game prior to this one came at home on Thursday, and with Giannis Antetokounmpo playing his worst game of the season, it said a lot about the Bucks’ character that they were just one point behind with 2:30 remaining.
In many ways this was a game the Bucks just weren’t supposed to win, but they gave themselves every opportunity to upset those odds all the same.
With all of that acting as the backdrop, let’s take a closer look at some of the more notable takeaways from Saturday’s loss in South Beach.