How a historic fourth quarter put the Heat on verge of playoff history. Takeaways from Game 3
Five takeaways from the fifth-seeded Miami Heat’s 115-100 win over the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks on Friday in the second round of the playoffs at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista. Miami holds a commanding 3-0 lead in the series and is a perfect 7-0 in the postseason:
The fourth quarter was Heat All-Star Jimmy Butler’s masterpiece, and it was also historic.
The Heat trailed by 14 points late in the third quarter and entered the fourth quarter in a 12-point hole.
How did Miami respond, when it was Milwaukee that needed the game more to avoid a 3-0 series deficit? The Heat outscored the Bucks 40-13 in the fourth quarter to turn a double-digit deficit into a double-digit win in 12 minutes.
The 27-point margin in the fourth quarter is the largest in NBA playoff history. It’s also the most points the Heat has won a fourth quarter by in franchise history, including regular season and playoff games.
Butler led the push, outscoring the Bucks 17-13 in the final period. His aggressive attacking style was on display, as each of the four shots he made in the fourth quarter came from inside the paint and he also scored nine points on 11 free throws in the final period.
With the help of his 17-point fourth quarter, Butler finished the win with 30 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field, 2-of-5 shooting on threes and 14-of-19 shooting from the foul line, seven rebounds and six assists. Miami outscored Milwaukee by 23 points with Butler on the court in Game 3.
“I’m just going to take what the defense gives me. I’m going to make the right play,” Butler said. “Shoot the ball when I think I can make shots.”
But Heat team captain Udonis Haslem also deserves some credit.
“He literally came to me and said, ‘Do not let us lose this game,’” Butler said of Haslem’s message. “And he came to me with eight minutes left in the third quarter. It was like, ‘Hit the switch, turn it on.’ ... For him to have that confidence in me, it goes a long way.”
Butler’s All-Star teammate Bam Adebayo also stepped up down the stretch, recording 10 points on just two shots with the help of 6-of-6 shooting on free throws and grabbing eight rebounds in the fourth quarter. He finished with 20 points, 16 rebounds and three assists.
“UD pulled me and Jimmy aside and said we need to be the best players on the court,” Adebayo said. “And, you know, at that point, Jimmy switched the switch on. It’s good to see he gets in that mode, man, where he just really gets locked in. It’s just great that he’s on my team. Like I said before, he’s the reason why we’re winning. And he’s the reason we’ve been closing out fourth quarters.”
Along with big late-game performances from its All-Star duo, the Heat also benefited from 55.6 percent shooting from the field, 17-of-19 shooting at the foul line and just one turnover in the final period. This efficient offense allowed Miami to slow the game down to a crawl, with the teams playing at a pace of 94 possessions per 48 minutes in the fourth quarter — a speed that helps the Heat.
“Execution and level of detail was much better in the fourth quarter, certainly than in the first half,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Then it helps to have veteran guys and it helps to be able to put the ball in a player’s hands like Jimmy because he makes the right plays and he doesn’t make many mistakes, and he’s certainly not afraid of the moment.”
The Heat and Bucks played at a pace of 98.5 possessions per 48 minutes in Game 3.
Milwaukee played only five regular season games at a pace slower than 100 possessions per 48 minutes, and it posted a 2-3 record in those games. Each of the three games in this second-round series has been played under the 100-possession threshold.
The Heat’s defense again stepped up late in the game.
In Miami’s historically dominant fourth quarter, it limited Milwaukee to just 13 points on 6-of-23 shooting from the field and 0-of-10 shooting on threes. It marked the Bucks’ lowest scoring quarter of the season.
Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo was held to just four points on 2-of-7 shooting in the final period. The reigning MVP nearly recorded a triple-double in Game 3, but it would have been an inefficient one with 21 points on 7-of-21 shooting from the field, 0-of-7 shooting on threes and 7-of-12 shooting on three throws, 16 rebounds and nine assists.
With the Heat primarily using Jae Crowder and Adebayo to defend Antetokounmpo, he has averaged 22.7 points on 45.1 percent shooting from the field, 2-of-13 shooting on threes and 54.1 percent shooting from the foul line to go with 13.3 rebounds and seven assists in the series.
The most surprising stat surrounding Antetokounmpo’s series: The Bucks have been outscored by 34 points in the 107 minutes their star has been on the court, and they have actually outscored the Heat by six points in the 37 minutes he has been on the bench.
Antetokounmpo tweaked his ankle in the first half Friday, but he played through the pain. He said after the loss that his ankle “wasn’t bothering me at all,” but he reportedly limped out of the arena.
The Heat’s defense has been dominant in the fourth quarter throughout the second-round series, as the Bucks have averaged just 19.7 points on 30.6 percent shooting from the field and 20.8 percent shooting on threes in the final period in the three games.
The Heat has posted the second-best fourth-quarter defensive rating (allowing 93.3 points per 100 possessions) during the playoffs.
Threes helped keep the Heat in the game until it took control in the fourth quarter.
The Bucks controlled Game 3 for the first three quarters, as their elite interior defense limited the Heat to just 16 paint points and 10 free-throw points during the first 36 minutes of the game.
But the Heat never let the Bucks pull away with the help of 15 made threes in the first three quarters, with 45 of its first 75 points coming from deep Friday.
With Milwaukee holding Miami to 28 paint points in Game 3, the Heat tied a franchise playoff record with 18 made threes on 47 attempts on Friday. Not only did it tie for the most made threes in a playoff game in Heat history, but it’s also the second-most threes it has attempted in any game and the most it has attempted in a playoff game in Heat history.
“That’s because they’re a very good paint protection team,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s high volume of threes. “Often times, that’s what’s going to be available and you can’t hesitate. You have to make the right basketball read. If that’s the open shot eight straight times, you have to be willing to take it. We are who we are, so we are an aggressive attacking team as well. But you have to read the defense. You can’t be a robot.”
Seven Heat players made multiple threes Friday, with Crowder hitting a game-high five threes on 11 attempts.
Miami has outscored Milwaukee 141-101 from three-point range in the series.
With reserve center Kelly Olynyk unavailable because of a bruised right knee, the Heat turned to Meyers Leonard and a 10-man rotation.
Leonard, who had fallen out of Miami’s rotation, received his first minutes of the 2020 playoffs on Friday. He went scoreless and dished out two assists in nine minutes.
“It was incredible to be out there,” Leonard said. “This is why NBA players play basketball. This is why we train all offseason. This is why we fight during the regular season. I’m just truly inspired by this team. To be around guys like UD, Jimmy, Bam, on down the line. It was a great feeling to be back out there.”
Spoelstra was forced to extend the rotation even further in Game 3, with Adebayo picking up two first-quarter fouls. Forward Derrick Jones Jr. entered for Adebayo as the 10th Heat player used in the opening period.
Jones scored six points on 2-of-2 shooting on threes in six minutes.
For most games this postseason, Spoelstra has used a nine-man rotation. Injuries and foul trouble forced Miami to use more of its bench Friday, with rookie guard Gabe Vincent entering in the final seconds as the 11th man.
The only active Heat players who did not get into Game 3 were Haslem and Solomon Hill.
Veteran forward Andre Iguodala was able to play in Game 3 after spraining his ankle in Game 2. Iguodala recorded six points, three rebounds and three assists in 11 minutes Friday.
It marked the first game Olynyk has missed this season because of an injury. He was held out of six games in the regular season because of a coach’s decision.
It looks like the Heat is on its way to advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since the final season of the Big 3 era in 2014.
No NBA team has ever overcome a 3-0 series deficit to advance in the playoffs, with Game 4 set for Sunday at 3:30 p.m. (ABC). The Heat is the first No. 5 seed to hold a 3-0 series lead over a No. 1 seed in NBA history, and it could become the first No. 5 seed to sweep a No. 1 seed.
“They are very good. We’ve used this term quite a bit, you have to be competitively humble,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s 3-0 series lead over the Bucks. “We have a day, so I don’t want everybody getting all charged up tonight. You do have to disengage for an evening and then we’ll get back to work tomorrow and get ready for a battle on Sunday.”
While Milwaukee finished the regular season with the NBA’s top record at 56-17, it just seems like the Heat is a really, really bad matchup for the Bucks. Miami has now won five of its six games against Milwaukee this season, including two wins in three games against the Bucks during the regular season.
No other Eastern Conference team beat Milwaukee more than once this season.
The last time a No. 5 seed advanced to the conference finals was in the 2013 playoffs, when the fifth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies were swept by the second-seeded San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals.
This story was originally published September 5, 2020 at 12:08 AM.
