There was no loud celebration. No theatrical performances, no big party in the square when the last horn rang and Milwaukee officially beat their playoff loss to Miami last season.
Put simply, the Bucks were waiting to win.
And the last four games have shown exactly why.
The rematch between Bucks and Heat was a mismatch, and Milwaukee became the first team to make this season’s playoffs by beating Miami 120-103 on Saturday and completing a 4-0 sweep in the first round. Brook Lopez scored 25 points, Bryn Hfrance.fr scored 22 and Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a triple-double – 20 points, 12 rebounds and 15 assists – for Milwaukee.
“This is of course a big moment for us and wins 4 -0, beating the team that defeated us last year, it feels good,” said Antetokounmpo. “But at the end of the day, we still have a long way to go. “
Khris Middleton had 20, Bobby Portis 13 and Jrue Holiday 11 for Milwaukee, who defeated Miami 24 in the second half.
Bam Adebayo scored 20 points and 14 rebounds for Miami, which got 18 points from Kendrick Nunn, 14 from Tyler Herro, 13 from Goran Dragic and a triple-double – 12 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists – from Jimmy Butler. We take our hats off to the organization of the Bucks, ”said Heat trainer Erik Spoelstra. “They were a great team last year and they have improved. Whether or not we are part of this improvement does not matter. They have taken their game to another level together. They hit us for a reason. ”
The Heat became the second team in this playoff format to go from sweep in the first round to sweep the next year endured these were the then New Jersey Nets, who won New York in 2004 and lost 4-0 in 2005 Miami.
After Milwaukee won the first three games, history has declared the outcome inevitable.
Teams with 3-0 playoffs are now 141-0 all-time in these duels. These bucks are the 88th of these teams to end things in one go. Your reward: at least a week free.
The third-placed bucks will play again by next Saturday at the latest. Their Eastern semifinal series against second-placed Brooklyn or seventh-placed Boston begins June 5, when the Nets advance to five games; In any other scenario, the Bucks will play on June 7th.
“We still have a long way to go,” Bucks “This is the first round of the playoffs. I think there has to be some humility, humility.” , an attitude or state of mind that needs to be improved. We got into the first round Regardless of the next player we play, we have to have the same goal, a similar advantage, a willingness to play with each other, play together, whatever we’ve just done. It means nothing if we stop doing this. “
After two combined 63-point Milwaukee punches in Games 2 and 3, the feeling immediately changed.
The Heat – ran 9-2 a little long after the start of Game 1 and hadn’t even had that big a lead in the last 136 minutes and 8 seconds of basketball before Game 4 – got the early jump Miami was a 20 to lead 12, the biggest lead in the series, and Heat was 12 ahead in the first half. A>
