MILWAUKEE — After a close Game 1 win, the Milaukee Bucks blew the Miami Heat out of their building in Game 2of their best-of-seven series, 132-98.
Giannis Antetokounmpo led the romp with 31 points. Bryn Forbes came off the bench with 22 and Khris Middleton pumped 17. Jrue Holiday added 11 points and 15 assists.
The Bucks jumped to an 8-0 start and never looked back. Their lead ballooned from 46-20 after one quarter of play to 78-51 at halftime. They led by as many as 36 points.
“They made a lot of shots,” rued Maimi’s Jimmy Butler, who only had 10 points on a difficult night when the Heat made only 33 of 82 shots (40/2 percent) whilemissing 20 of their 28 threes. Miami also fumbled at the free throw stripe, 24 for 35.
Dewayne Dedmon led Miami with 19 points. Goran Dragic tallied 18 and Bam Adebayo finished with 16 and four boards. Tyler Herro, who struggled in Game 1 with just 2-for-10 shooting had another miserable outing and bricked four of his five field goals.
Milwaukee, meanwhile, was clicking indeed on all cylinders.
The Bucks converted 46 of 94 from the field (48.9 percent) and 22 of 53 from beyond the arc (41.5 percent). Notorious for its 23rd-ranked free theow shooting, Milwaukee had a surprising turn at the free throw stripe, going 18 for 20, a whopping 90 percent accuracy rate.
Game 3 is Friday at the Aemrican Airlines Arena in Miami. Expect the Heat to punch back.
“I don’t think we need to give ourselves a pep talk. We’re gorwn men.And the end of the day, we are down 2-0. We know what we’ve got to do,” Heat center Bam Adebayo told reporters in his post-game press conference via Zoom.
The Heat, last year’s NBA finalists, are no stranger to adversity. But the road to the second round just got touger. They need to win four of the next five games to advance.
