Red-eye rather than deadeye
With a through the night flight from Boston meaning the Bucks only arrived at their hotel in Miami at 4.30am, the chances of Milwaukee performing at their best on Saturday evening were always slim to none.
Considering the emphasis that’s been placed on reducing back-to-backs and the travel toll for NBA teams in recent years, this two-game set for the Bucks stood out as particularly unusual and demanding.
A brutal first quarter against a rested Heat team immediately showed just how much of an impact fatigue was going to have on the Bucks throughout the night.
To Milwaukee’s credit, they showed a lot of guts and defended exceptionally to give themselves any chance of coming away with a win, but as they came nowhere near their usual free flowing scoring, it was clear the Bucks were more than a little leggy on their jumpers.
The Bucks finished 9-of-43 (20.3 percent) from three-point range, with only George Hill and Tony Snell managing to make triples with any sort of efficiency.
That’s by no means an indicator of the Bucks failing to create or take quality looks, but on this occasion those shots just wouldn’t fall. The reason why is no real mystery.