Heat in 3-0 playoff hole. Takeaways and reaction from another lopsided loss to the Bucks
Five takeaways from the sixth-seeded Miami Heat’s 113-84 blowout loss to the third-seeded Milwaukee Bucks at AmericanAirlines Arena on Thursday in Game 3. Milwaukee holds a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven first-round playoff series:
After representing the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals last season, the Heat is now on the verge of a very early playoff exit.
The Heat already faced long odds after going down 2-0 in series, as it holds a 1-8 all-time record in playoff series that it has lost the first two games in.
But the Heat is now facing a situation that no team has come back from in league history. No NBA team has ever rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven playoff series, but three teams have come back to force a Game 7 after losing the first three games.
“We’re not worried about that,” Jimmy Butler said of history not being on the Heat’s side. “We control what we can control and that’s how we play, that’s how we prepare, how we compete. We’re not too worried about what history says and all that good stuff. But we got our work cut out for us.”
The Heat’s next challenge is to avoid a sweep. Miami has only been swept in a best-of-seven series once in franchise history, and that was in the first round against the Chicago Bulls in 2007.
In fact, the Heat has only faced a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven playoff series three times in franchise history. Miami won Game 4 before eventually being eliminated in Game 5 on two of those occasions and was swept on the other.
“Everything can seem overwhelming if you look at the whole big picture,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But you take it one step at a time, we’re capable of playing good enough to win a game. That’s all our focus has to be right now.”
Game 4 of the series is Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at AmericanAirlines Arena (Bally Sports Sun, TNT).
“Our backs are against the wall. It’s literally win or go home,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said.
The Heat’s offense is still searching for answers against the Bucks’ paint-packing defense.
To beat the Bucks’ defense, teams have to make an efficient amount of above-the-break threes, mid-range shots and non-rim paint opportunities because not many clean looks around the basket are usually available. Milwaukee drops 7-footer Brook Lopez into the paint and dares teams to make enough non-rim twos to win, and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Giannis Antetokounmpo’s length doesn’t make it any easier.
The Heat had trouble generating its usual offense at the rim in the first two games of the series, and that trend continued in Game 3.
The Heat shot just 10 of 22 (45.5 percent) at the rim on Thursday and again just didn’t make enough of the shots that are available against the Bucks’ defense to make them pay for this type of coverage.
“They’ve taken away a lot of those easy relief points that we’re accustomed to getting,” Spoelstra said. “You have to continue to work the offense and the way this series is, it’s probably going to be your second and third layers quite often. Then quite frankly, also it just looks different when the ball goes in on some of those same shots.
“Our guys have the right intent offensively. We just have to look at that and see where we can maximize a little bit more of our strengths. I feel that I have to do a better job too of freeing guys up, getting guys more comfortable and get them more in their strength zones.”
In Game 3, the Heat shot 9 of 16 (56.3 percent) on non-rim paint shots, 4 of 15 (26.7 percent) on midrange looks and 5 of 22 (22.7 percent) on above-the-break threes.
That was enough for the Bucks to survive their own first-half shooting struggles, as they made just 40.4 percent of their shots in the first two quarters. But Milwaukee pulled away in the second half, when it scored 64 points on 57.1 percent shooting.
Khris Middleton led the Bucks with 22 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Antetokounmpo totaled 17 points, 17 rebounds and five assists.
The Heat’s 34-point loss in Game 2 is the second-most lopsided in Heat playoff history. And Thursday’s 29-point loss in Game 3 is tied for the fifth-most lopsided playoff loss and most lopsided home playoff loss in franchise history.
In total, the Heat has been outscored by 63 points over the past two games, which is the most lopsided two-game span in franchise playoff history, according to ESPN Stats & Info. Butler said he’s surprised “how fast it got out of hand” in the last two games.
Miami has shot 42.6 percent on non-rim paint shots, 23.4 percent on midrange attempts and 31.8 percent on above-the-break threes in the series. Since setting new franchise playoff records with 20 made threes and 50 three-point attempts in Game 1, the Heat has shot 17 of 60 (28.3 percent) from three-point range in the last two games.
“They made us take those midrange shots and floaters,” Heat guard Goran Dragic said. “Lopez is doing a great job of getting inside the paint and challenging everything.”
During last year’s second-round 4-1 playoff upset over the Bucks, the Heat shot an efficient 49.3 percent on non-rim paint opportunities, 45.8 percent on midrange jumpers and 40.3 percent on above-the break-threes.
Miami has also been outrebounded 180-129 in the series in part because it has missed a lot more shots than Milwaukee, but also because the Bucks have dominated the offensive glass 46-28.
The Heat’s leading duo of Adebayo and Butler turned in their best offensive games of the series on Thursday, but others were very quiet.
Adebayo and Butler, who averaged 26 points on 29.3 percent shooting in the first two games of the series, were better in Game 3. But they still weren’t the best versions of themselves, as the Bucks continued to find ways to limit quality shot attempts at the rim.
Adebayo finished with 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting, eight rebounds and four assists. But he took just three shots at the rim and missed each of his three midrange attempts.
Butler finished with 19 points on 7-of-17 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 shooting on threes, eight rebounds and six assists. He shot 2 of 7 in the paint in Game 3 and is shooting just 30.6 percent from the field in the series.
The supporting cast did not offer much help, as the rest of the Heat’s starting lineup combined to score 10 points on 4-of-24 shooting.
Trevor Ariza finished scoreless for the second straight game. He has scored just eight points on 2-of-11 shooting on threes in the series.
Duncan Robinson scored just two points on 1-of-6 shooting from the field and 0-of-4 shooting from deep. Since hitting 7 of 13 threes in Game 1, he has shot 2 of 10 from beyond the arc in the last two games.
Dragic finished with eight points on 3-of-14 shooting from the field and 2-of-6 shooting on threes.
In search of answers, the Heat made a change to its starting lineup in Game 3. But the switch didn’t move the needle.
Dragic started in place of Kendrick Nunn on Thursday, alongside Robinson, Butler, Ariza and Adebayo.
This five-man lineup of Dragic, Robinson, Butler, Ariza and Adebayo played 15 minutes together and posted a plus/minus of plus-2 in the first two games of the series. The Heat outscored opponents by 11 points in 61 minutes with this group on the court in the regular season.
The results weren’t positive in Game 3, though.
The Dragic-Robinson-Butler-Ariza-Adebayo lineup finished Thursday’s loss with a plus/minus of minus-7 in 11 minutes.
In other news, the Heat played in a near-capacity AmericanAirlines Arena on Thursday for the first time in nearly 15 months.
The Heat increased capacity at its home arena to 17,000 for the playoffs — the largest in the NBA this season, so far — or about 87 percent of its usual capacity of 19,600.
The announced attendance for Game 3 was a sellout crowd of 17,000. It marked the largest crowd at AmericanAirlines Arena since the 2019-20 NBA season was suspended on March 11, 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
AmericanAirlines Arena was previously operating at a capacity of about 5,700 in the final weeks of the regular season.
Thursday was also the Heat’s first true home playoff game since April 21, 2018 — Game 4 of its first-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers. Miami did not make the playoffs in 2019 and last year’s run to the NBA finals came in the Walt Disney World bubble.
This story was originally published May 28, 2021 at 12:05 AM.
