The Milwaukee Bucks almost stole a win in Game 2 against the Miami Heat, but ended up losing in a dubious free throw heartbreaker.
Through two games of their Eastern Conference Semi-Finals series with the Miami Heat, the Milwaukee Bucks find themselves staring into the abyss.
This series couldn’t have started in worse fashion for the Bucks, and yet the conclusion to Game 2 still found a way to rub it in just a little bit more.
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After a late rally that included a major helping hand from a Heat team that looked rattled under heavy defensive pressure, the Bucks somehow found themselves tied up at 114 after Khris Middleton made three free throws with just over four seconds remaining in regulation.
From there, Wesley Matthews and Giannis Antetokounmpo applied pressure on Jimmy Butler in the corner, whose shot missed, only for him to be bailed out by the officials.
With Giannis barely placing a hand on Butler on the way down, to say the call was soft would be the understatement of the century. Still, to add insult to injury, the officials deemed the clock to be at 0.0 seconds after review. That meant the Bucks didn’t even have the chance to toss up a heave in response to Butler’s two made free throws.
On the overall balance of the game, the Bucks can have no gripes. They didn’t deserve to win. But that isn’t always the decisive factor anyway. The Bucks did everything to give themselves a chance to steal it in the last 90 seconds or so and, for that, it seems like overtime would have been fair.
It wasn’t to be, though, and so the Bucks find themselves in a desperate spot.
With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at the Bucks’ individual performances from their Game 2 loss to the Miami Heat on Wednesday.