Rapid Recap: Bucks 87, Heat 94

Sometimes, getting in at 4AM after playing the night before isn’t a good thing, as evidenced in the Milwaukee Bucks losing 87-94 against the Miami Heat. The evening started abysmally for the Bucks, who scored a season-low for one period to start and were down 21-8 following the first quarter. After another slow start to the period, the Bucks were able to finally get some shots to fall and took a 38-37 lead into half. Unfortunately, the Wisconsin winter seemed to travel with the team and spilled into their third quarter shooting again, as they fell down 58-72 to begin the fourth. Milwaukee finally mounted a comeback in the fourth quarter to get within one, but Miami kept nailing shots down the stretch to hand Milwaukee a loss.

Much of the chatter about this game surrounded the crazy nature of this back-to-back, one of the longest trips possible for a B2B within the Eastern Conference. So, you could notch this one as a schedule loss, particularly with the anomalous 3-point percentage, only 20.9% on 43 attempts. Personally, I was pretty heartened by the fact they could’ve stolen this one despite the horrendous shooting.

Giannis will want to forget this outing. He had only nine points and 13 rebounds, looking stymied whenever he tried to force his way into the paint. Miami always gives him trouble, but this was a particularly vexing game.

Khris Middleton was the high scorer for Milwaukee, going for 18 points, albeit on 18 total shots including just 2-11 from deep. Eric Bledsoe had 17 points for the Bucks while George Hill chipped in 10.

Miami was without Goran Dragic tonight, but they dipped into their never-ending pool of hardworking wings and pulled out consistent performances across the board. James Johnson went for 11 points, Justise Winslow had 8 and Josh Richardson finished at 16. Dwayne Wade added 13, including some tough jumpers late.

Stat that Stood Out

There’s something about Miami that just seems to flummox Giannis. Their parade of bulky and athletic wings trip him up too often, and his 9 points tonight marks just his fifth game scoring in single digits since the 2016-17 season. It was certainly his most challenging performance since the Indiana game, when he had just 12.