As the Milwaukee Bucks prepare for their series with the Miami Heat, we look back at what can be gleamed from the season series between the two sides.
The Milwaukee Bucks are about to face the next test of their growing playoff run when their Conference Semifinals series with the Miami Heat tips off Monday evening.
Both the Bucks and the Heat took care of business in their respective first round series, with Milwaukee rolling past the Orlando magic in five games and the Heat sweeping the Indiana Pacers in four games. Now the two teams face off against each other in a series that will serve as an interesting chess match, so to speak.
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With that said, the three games that the Bucks and the Heat met up against each other over the course of this unprecedented 2019-20 season
First, there’s the Heat’s 131-126 overtime victory that dampened the Bucks’ home opener way back on October 26 of last year, a game that didn’t feature Miami All-Star wing Jimmy Butler.
It served as one of the early lapses this Bucks team suffered to start their run, all of which was exemplified by the fact that the Bucks had led by as much as 21 points early on in the third period. And Milwaukee’s ability to stave off the Heat’s comeback was hamstrung by Giannis Antetokounmpo fouling out during the overtime period.
The Heat struck once again to get into the Bucks’ craw back on March 2 when they notched a 105-89 victory back on their home floor. Playing on the second night of a back-to-back, that night served as one of, if not the worst offensive performance of the Bucks’ season as they scored a season-low 89 points on the night and were generally stifled by the Heat’s physical presence.
Miami’s strong sharpshooting, meanwhile, was the key to their decisive victory as they knocked down 18 threes and went 48.6 percent from deep on the night, all of which was led by Jae Crowder’s five triples.
A little more than five months later and down in the bubble, the Bucks certainly got their revenge on the Heat earlier this month when they came back to take a 130-116 victory over Miami.
Milwaukee staged an incredible comeback of their own after looking as dismal as they have looked down in the bubble throughout the first half of that game and trailed by as much as 23 midway through the second quarter. With their pair of All-Stars in Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton both pouring in 33 points, respectively, the Bucks managed to weather the storm and completely turned the tables on the Heat to give them the victory that officially cemented them as the one-seed in the East.
Once again, Butler was missing from the proceedings, along with veteran guard Goran Dragic, but the Heat’s offensive attack didn’t lack a punch by hitting 21 threes, seven of which came from sharpshooter Duncan Robinson. But it surely was dulled when the Bucks turned on their comeback effort over the course of second half.
For as much as the Heat have surely given the Bucks plenty of problems over the course of the 2019-20 season, there’s no question there have been some flukes that have factored into the three game series between one another. Whether that was the incredible 20-point-plus collapses from both sides or a disastrously outlier offensive performance from the Bucks in early March.
Still, the Heat have certainly constructed a versatile array of options and are defined by their collective strength in numbers, all while their All-Star duo in Butler and do-it-all big man Bam Adebayo feature as the main centerpieces. And their lethal mix of sharpshooting, headlined by the otherworldly Robinson, will almost certainly pose a problem for a Bucks team that allows the most opponent threes of all teams in the league.
The Bucks, meanwhile, have their own set of advantages to lean on toward a series victory, all of which is led by the fact that they have the best player on the court in Antetokounmpo. The supporting cast around the MVP will certainly have to step up as well and this could be a series in which the Bucks turn to someone like Brook Lopez to mash on any and all mismatches to steward the Bucks’ offense, especially in the moments when Antetokounmpo is off the floor.
Even as you can look through some areas, things definitely didn’t go the way of the Bucks for most of their season series with the Heat. Soon we’ll see whether the Bucks have learned some of the lessons that will be key to thwarting the Heat as they continue their quest to win an NBA championship this season.