The Miami Heat took a 3-1 lead with a 119-114 home win on Monday, April 24 over the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series. Game 5 will be played in Milwaukee on Wednesday night.
Here are some stats, good and bad, that helped define that game.
Good Stat, Bad Stat: Numbers from the Bucks’ Game 4 loss to the Heat
Bad Stat: Bench scoring has been a factor in this series. In Monday night’s loss, the Heat bench tallied 32 points to only 16 for the Bucks. In the series, the Miami bench has scored 174 points to only 128 for Milwaukee.
Good Stat: Brook Lopez scored a career-playoff-high 36 points and added 11 rebounds. His previous career-high in points in a playoff game was 33. Lopez also got his 10th career double-double. His teams are 5-5 when he gets a double-double in the playoffs (2-3 with the Bucks).
Bad Stat: Miami’s Jimmy Butler scored 56 points, which is tied for the fourth most playoff points scored by a player in NBA history. He became the 30th player in league history to score 50 or more points in a playoff game. Michael Jordan tops the list with eight games with 50+ points in a playoff game.
Butler’s 56 points are the most an opposing player has scored against the Bucks in a playoff contest. He broke the record previously held by Billy Cunningham, who scored 50 points against the Bucks in an April 1, 1970, playoff game. Butler also became the fifth opposing player to score 40 or more points in multiple playoff games against Milwaukee. The others: Allen Iverson, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Larry Bird.
Good Stat: Giannis Antetokounmpo had a triple-double in the game: 26 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists. It was the third triple-double in a playoff game in his career. He is one of three Bucks players with a triple-double in a playoff game (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Paul Pressey are the others). Giannis is the 29th player in league history to have three or more triple-doubles in playoff games. Magic Johnson leads this stat with 30 playoff triple-doubles. He is followed by LeBron James with 28.
Bad Stat: Giannis had six turnovers in the game. He has had six or more turnovers in nine playoff games; the Bucks are 3-6 in those games.
Bad Stat: Milwaukee shot 13-for-40 from the 3-point line, a .325 percentage. In the one game won by Milwaukee, they were 25-for-49 from three (.510). In the three losses in this series, the Bucks are 39-for-124 from the 3-point line, .315 percentage. Jrue Holiday was 2-for-11 in the game and is now 10-for-36 from the 3-point line in the series (.278). He shot .384 on threes in the regular season.
Good Stat: Brook Lopez made four threes and had three blocked shots. He now has four playoff games with Milwaukee where he had three blocked shots and three 3-pointers made in a playoff game, most in team history. Two other players (Thon Maker and Brad Lohaus) are the only other Bucks to have three blocks and three threes made in a playoff game.
Lopez became the sixth player in NBA history to have four or more playoff games with three blocks shots and three 3-pointers made. LeBron James leads this category with 10 such games. He is followed by Danny Green (eight games), Rasheed Wallace and Kevin Durant (six games each), and Al Horford (four games).
Bad Stat: Of all the 16 playoff teams in 2023, the Bucks have allowed the most points with 492. That’s an average of 123 points allowed in this series. The Bucks allowed 113.3 points in the regular season.
Bad Stat: Jimmy Butler has scored 146 points in the four games of the series, averaging 36.5 points per game. He is now fourth on the all-time list for most playoff points scored by a player in games against Milwaukee with 470, per Stathead (Subscription required). Julius Erving has the most playoff points versus Milwaukee with 676. He is followed by Maurice Cheeks (564), Larry Bird (503), and then Butler (470).
Bad Stat: The Bucks have now lost three of their last five Game 4’s in the playoffs. Game 5 will be back in Milwaukee. They are 8-11 in Game 5’s; they are 4-3 at home and 4-8 on the road.
Stay tuned for more Milwaukee Bucks analysis.