Bucks pull out another ugly win, but we’ll take it
The Milwaukee Bucks gutted out the 121-115 overtime win tonight against the Miami Heat in a game that was… not pretty, shall we say. Giannis had another otherworldly triple double, this time with 36-15-10. KPJ was definitely the Bucks’ second-best with his own near-triple-double of 24 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists. Bam Adebayo led the Heat with a crazy stat line of 31 points and 12 rebounds.
Game Recap
Bam Adebayo, who had been shooting the three better of late, nailed two threes to start for the Heat. The Bucks got off to a decent start too but also showed the same bad lacklustre transition defence they had been showing of late, losing Duncan Robinson (off a make) as he hit a three to tie the game at 11 through five minutes. Then Giannis went out and scoring really dried up, with Milwaukee notching just 11 more points in the period as they ended the first down 22-30.
Kevin Porter Jr. came up big in the second, giving the Bucks 10 points off the bench working in the pick-and-roll with Lopez. Additionally, Pat Connaughton made another cameo and showed his veteran savvy with five points and two assists in the second to bolster the Bucks. But Bam Adebayo, who had 23 at halftime, continued to keep Miami close with Tyler Herro out. Game tied at 57 going into the locker room.
Giannis scored the Bucks’ first seven points of the half to put the Bucks up 66-61, but a Rollins offensive foul and (another) flailing Kuzma attempt allowed the Heat to get right back into it, grabbing a 71-68 lead as Doc called the timeout. Bucks down 81-88 after three and struggling.
Milwaukee responded well to open the fourth, grabbing the lead back at 96-95 with about seven minutes to play; they had two back-breaking possessions to extend the lead but couldn’t score, and the Heat grabbed the lead right back the next possession. Giannis then had what I want to say was a one-minute break and Miami capitalised, extending their lead to 102-96 with about four left. The Bucks went on a five-minute scoring drought, but the Heat also went dry, before a Brook layup and a KPJ triple got the deficit down to 105-107 with 2:07 remaining. Amazingly, the Bucks tied the game at 111 with a chance to win… but Gianis dribbled the ball for 18 seconds and settled for a fadeaway pullup jumper. Yep. OT it is!
Bam scored the first bucket in OT, TP answered, Adebayo hit another tough jumper, but Porter got the massive O board and laid it back in to tie the game at 115. The Bucks then got a stop, but Giannis got hit with the offensive foul… which was reversed on the challenge! Then (because of course) the Bucks turned it over on the inbound right after, but the Heat turned it (back over) and Giannis got out for the transition dunk! They then got another awesome stop and actually got into an action, KPJ split the double and put in the flailing floater at the rim! Bucks up four at 119-115 with 11 seconds left! From there, they played the foul game and got the win in a truly stupid conclusion to a basketball game.
Stat That Stood Out
Kyle Kuzma was rough tonight. Nine points on 4/13 shooting and 1/6 from three. -15 in 25 minutes. Not much else to say, really.
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