Rapid Recap: Bucks 118, Magic 104

The Milwaukee Bucks made their historic strike on Wednesday, and didn’t miss a beat after the few days of lay-off in closing out the Orlando Magic, 118-104, to move into round two of the NBA Playoffs. Milwaukee found their footing early in the first, but the Magic fought back to make it just a 26-21 advantage after one. In the second, the Bucks opened up a sizable 67-50 advantage as they shot 11-24 (45.8%) from deep. Orlando battled back with a late surge in the third as Milwaukee entered the final stanza up 11, 90-79. The Bucks held on despite the Magic bringing the lead to just three, thrusting them into the next round. Milwaukee will start Game 1 against Miami on Monday.

Hampered by foul trouble, Giannis Antetokounmpo played merely 28 minutes but still belted out 28 points and 17 rebounds to close it out.

Khris Middleton carried over some of his hot fourth quarter shotmaking in Game 4, but his passing really stood out, as he went for 21 points, 10 boards and seven assists. Brook Lopez filled out the trio with 16 points. Props to Marvin Williams as well for some clutch 3-pointers late and pulling together 12 points.

Nikola Vucevic had a poor game for his first time this series, shooting just 9-25 and pouring in 22 points and 15 rebounds. Otherwise it was a balanced scoring effort, with four other Magic in double figures, led by Evan Fournier at 18.

Stat that Stood Out

Giannis may not have found his way to the free throw line much today, just 3-5, but he managed to hit just as many triples as shots from the charity stripe today. He went 3-6 from deep, and even if his misses looked ugly, it was good to see him shooting late in the fourth to salt the game away. His deep shot bears plenty of monitoring, both in accuracy and quantity, in future rounds.