Milwaukee Bucks: 3 keys to success on the road in series vs. Miami Heat
The Milwaukee Bucks must keep up their perimeter defense on the road in series vs. Heat
A significant reason this Heat team was able to knock the Bucks out of last year’s Conference Semifinals last season was because of their firepower from behind the 3-point line.
We saw players like Duncan Robinson, Tyler Herro and Goran Dragic torture the Bucks in their meetings last season as they hit 37.3 percent of their threes last season. And Robinson put on quite a display in game one when he made all three of his first three shots from long range and finished with 24 points on 7-for-13 shooting from downtown.
Miami rode their 3-point shooting to outscore the Bucks by 45 points behind the line in Game 1 and are the second team in playoff history to lose said game.
NBA teams were 73-1 all-time when outscoring an opponent by at least 45 points from the 3-point line.
— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) May 22, 2021
Until today.
Heat outscored Bucks 60-15 from deep. And lost.
Other loss: Heat were outscored 54-6 from deep by the Knicks in January 2012, but beat New York 99-89 that night.
To their credit, Milwaukee snuffed out the Heat’s lights out shooting from Game 1 and limited Miami to shoot 8-for-28 from long distance (28.6 percent). The Bucks certainly ratcheted up more intense perimeter defense in Game 2, led by the incredible effort of Jrue Holiday, going over ball screens and giving up far fewer uncontested long range looks. Per NBA.com/stats, the Heat shot 7-for-17 from three (41.2 percent) on wide-open looks.
The Heat’s offensive attack certainly isn’t what we saw in the bubble and last year’s playoffs. After all, they lost their leading 3-point shooter in Jae Crowder last offseason. Still, the Bucks have to make more of a concerted effort to clamp down on 3-point shots just like what we saw in Game 2.