Heat gets big night from Butler and bench, beats Bucks to take 2-1 lead in series
The Heat couldn’t seize on its no-Giannis opportunity in Game 2.
It certainly did in Game 3, in a resounding and emphatic and thoroughly impressive 121-99 dismantling of the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night inside a rollicking Kaseya Center.
Jimmy Butler led the way with 30 points, and Duncan Robinson added 20.
The Bucks - who handled the Heat without MVP candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo in Game 2 - badly missed him in Game 3, on a night the Heat was at the top of its game on both ends of the court.
Only four eighth seeds have ousted top seeds from the playoffs in NBA history, none since Memphis did it to San Antonio 12 years ago. There’s a long way to go, but the Heat is halfway to achieving that, taking a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Game 4 is 7:30 p.m. Monday in Miami, with Game 5 slated for 9:30 p.m. Wednesday in Milwaukee.
But the joy of the night was somewhat tempered after Victor Oladipo’s left leg seemed to buckle on him while he rose for a layup late in the game.
He fell to the floor, holding his left knee, and needed help - from Erik Spoelstra and others - to walk to the locker room. Jimmy Butler and other Heat players winced and cursed on the bench, fearing the worst and knowing all that Oladipo has gone through to return from two major surgeries on his right knee.
Oladipo missed the first 24 games this season with tendonosis in his left knee but hadn’t had any problems with the knee since then, before Saturday’s injury.
“Vic, we don’t know right now,” Spoelstra said. “We’ll have him checked out tomorrow. I feel how everyone feels. Great win, but when you see a player go down like that - particularly a player like Vic, who has gone through so much. I don’t know what it is right now. I feel like throwing up right now, but I don’t know what the prognosis is.”
Injuries have been an unfortunate story of this series, with Tyler Herro sidelined at least six weeks with a hand injury and Antetokounmpo’s status uncertain.
Antetokounmpo, nursing a lower back contusion, has played only 11 minutes of this series, and there’s no indication when he will return.
The Heat took advantage, setting a franchise playoff record with 12 first half three pointers (on 19 attempts) and closing the night 16 for 33 on threes and shooting 54 percent overall.
Butler set the tone early, scoring 17 of his 30 in the first quarter. He closed 12 for 19 from the field, including 4 for 4 on threes, to go with five rebounds, four assists and two steals. This was Butler’s 14th 30-point playoff game in four seasons with the Heat, and he did it in 28 minutes.
Butler went to the locker-room late in the third quarter with a bruised glute, minutes after he fell hard to the floor, landing on his back, while jockeying for a ball, and then falling again a few minutes later. He initially played through it before going to the bench and limping to the locker room.
He returned to the Heat bench early in the fourth quarter and was cleared to return. But the Heat, comfortably ahead, didn’t need him to finish the game. Spoelstra said Butler told him that he could have returned to the game.
Meanwhile, the Heat’s bench was exceptional, delivering 59 points, including a Robinson-led three-point barrage that helped push Miami’s lead to 18 in the first half and 20 early in the fourth.
Robinson celebrated his 29th birthday by scoring 20 points, finishing 7 for 9 from the field and 5 for 6 on threes.
Lowry, after a slow start to this playoff series, was spry and effective, with 15 points on 5 for 10 shooting. The Heat outscored the Bucks by 27 points during his 27 minutes on the court.
Caleb Martin (12 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals) and Oladipo (eight points, two steals) harassed on defense, and the Heat played very well with both on the floor before Oladipo’s crushing injury late. The Heat was a plus 31 in Martin’s 33 minutes.
“The second unit came in with a mindset that they wanted to impact this game,” Spoelstra said. “They were inspiring tonight.”
Bam Adebayo chipped in 12 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals.
The Heat withstood 23 points from Khris Middleton and 19 from Jrue Holiday.
Overall, Miami’s defense was active and disruptive, as the Heat effectively mixed man-to-man with zone. The Heat allowed fewer open looks than it did in Game 2, when the Bucks scored 138 points and tied an NBA playoff record with 25 three pointers. Milwaukee shot 44.7 percent and committed 18 turnovers, compared with 22 assists.
Seeking more size, Spoelstra changed his lineup before the game, inserting Kevin Love at power forward, moving Max Strus to shooting guard and removing Robinson from the starting group.
“We felt this made the most sense to start out a little bit bigger to try to protect the paint, rebound better, impose our will physically a little more,” Spoelstra said.
That group trailed 14-7 less than five minutes in, after a quick 10 points from Holiday.
But the lineup decision worked, because Brook Lopez and the Bucks couldn’t replicate their basket-area or rebounding success from Game 1.
And the Heat quickly changed the momentum, unleashing a 14-0 rush to close the quarter.
Butler led that stampede with 17 points in the first quarter, making six of his eight shots and all three of his three-point attempts.
That marked the sixth time in his Heat playoff career that Butler scored at least 17 points in a quarter.
The Heat stretched the run to 19-0, and eventually, 33-9, in the second quarter thanks largely to a deluge of threes, including three from Robinson and two from Lowry.
Miami made 7 of 9 three-pointers in the second quarter and 12 of 19 in the first half, an absurd 63.2 percent.
And the Heat entered the series shooting 51 percent on threes in the first two games, after finishing the regular-season 27th in the league in three-point shooting at 34.7 percent.
This was an epic second quarter for the Heat bench, with Lowry (11), Robinson (9), Martin (4), and Oladipo (2) scoring 26 in the quarter, compared with 8 for the Bucks’ bench.
With Butler scoring 21, the Heat went to the half ahead 66-53, despite 10 for 18 three point shooting from the Bucks and despite 15 from Holiday and 13 from Middleton.
Adebayo left with his fourth foul with 8:35 left in the third and the Heat ahead 74-60. But the Heat stretched the lead to 15 after three, thanks to nine from Butler and seven from Strus.
Love - who had six points and seven rebounds in 20 minutes - also was very good in that third quarter, delivering one of his patented outlet passes to Strus for a basket and blocking a Holiday shot to trigger a fast break.
In the fourth, with Butler on the bench, Robinson not only hit a three, but drove to the basket for a layup. Adebayo also played well in the fourth.
But Oladipo’s injury made it a bittersweet night overall.
“Prayers to Vic,” Lowry said. “We’ll see what happens later. Hopefully positive news comes from this.”
This story was originally published April 22, 2023 at 10:01 PM.
