No Giannis Antetokounmpo, no problem for the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 2.
After a competitive first quarter, Milwaukee outscored Miami 46-27 in the second quarter en route to a 138-122 victory on Wednesday night at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
The difference between the first and second games was that Milwaukee came out with a sense of urgency in Game 2. They came out firing on all cylinders offensively as they shot 53 percent from the field and hit a playoff-record 25 threes. That sense of urgency in Game 2 helped them win pretty handily. So, who were the three Bucks who rose to the occasion in Game 2?
1 – Pat Connaughton
Prime-time Pat Connaughton showed up in a big way for the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 2.
After not playing at all in Game 1, Connaughton came up huge in Game 2 with 22 points, four rebounds, and three assists in 25 minutes of action. Connaughton was the unlikely hero before this point and was mired in a two-month-long shooting stretch.
Teams against Miami shot 36 percent from three in the regular season. Connaughton exploited that by taking advantage of Miami’s tendency to sag off defensively from the 3-point line.
Miami didn’t show enough respect to Connaughton offensively as all of the threes he made were either open or Miami was late to rotate defensively, and he made them pay for it.
Looking at his 3-point makes, it looked like Miami thought they were playing four on five because they didn’t account for Connaughton at all.
Despite his season-long shooting slump, Connaughton is a 41 percent 3-point shooter in the playoffs since coming to Milwaukee, so not paying attention to him at times was a bold strategy, and it cost Miami the game.
Give credit to Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday because they found him open in the corner consistently, where he was able to knock down those shots.
This was a huge confidence boost for Connaughton, and it’s an encouraging sign that he’s started this series shooting the ball well.