Game 2 – Heat Check Gaming
In spite of their first loss of the season on Wednesday night, the Bucks opted to stick with the plan heading into Thursday. With no changes to the lineup, Milwaukee set out with the intent of exacting revenge against a Heat Check team that had eliminated them from the Tip-Off Tournament.
With that in mind, the Bucks came out of the gates looking like they meant business. BigMeek knocked down an early triple, while Plondo grabbed a rebound and kicked out to Meek for another basket soon after, setting the tone for what lay ahead. ARooks had no problems with the long ball compared to the previous night, knocking down two in the first quarter as strong defense helped the Bucks to an early 15-10 lead.
In the second quarter, it quickly became the Plondo show. Bucks Gaming’s top pick this year had racked up multiple double-doubles as he reliably manned the middle over the first few games, but Thursday night saw the Boise native take things up another level. Plondo dominated the glass, which is no mean feat matched up against Miami’s HotShot, and by half time he’d already racked up 14 points and 12 rebounds on 6-of-7 shooting. Unsurprisingly, that coincided with a 31-20 Milwaukee lead.
The pattern of the game didn’t change in the third quarter, outside of it becoming a much more obvious case of one way traffic from the Bucks. Plondo continued to excel on the glass, and had his head up to pick out open shooters, and his teammates delivered by getting red-hot from distance. All four of the non-Plondo Bucks drained at least one triple in the third quarter, leaving the Heat reeling heading into the fourth, down 56-35.
From there, it was just a matter of game management for Milwaukee. Chaddynick added two more threes to a perfect shooting night from distance, while Plondo wrapped up his final line of 17 points, 19 rebounds and nine assists. He could have had the league’s first triple-double of the season, if not for the Heat deliberately fouling him to prevent that opportunity late on.
Still, considering how the previous meeting between these teams played out, the Bucks could be nothing other than ecstatic at this game’s final score of 80-57.
GAME!@BucksGG beat @HeatCheckGaming 80 - 57
— 2k Analytics (@2k_Analytics) April 18, 2019
-Bucks@Plondo_ - 17 points, 19 rebounds and 9 assists@BigMeekHTX - 27 points
-Heat@Hotshotx305 - 20 points and 12 rebounds pic.twitter.com/jnnITLGFIL
Bucks GG will be back in action on May 2, as they’ll get a well deserved break from play next week.