The Miami Heat punched their ticket to the NBA
Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday, beating top-seeded Milwaukee 103-94 as
injured Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo watched from the bench.
Jimmy Butler and Goran Dragic finished with 17
points apiece as six Heat players scored in double figures and Miami completed
a 4-1 series victory in a bruising encounter against the league’s top defensive
team.
Khris Middleton led the Bucks with 23 points.
Antetokounmpo – tipped to scoop a second
straight NBA Most Valuable Player award this season – aggravated his sprained
right ankle in the first half of the Bucks’ game-four overtime victory over the
Heat.
The Bucks declared him inactive less than an
hour before tipoff on Tuesday.
The loss of Antetokounmpo, who averaged career
highs of 29.5 points and 13.6 rebounds per game this season, was a huge blow
for the Bucks, as they tried to do what no NBA team has done before: come back
from an 0-3 deficit to win a seven-game playoff series.
It’s the second straight campaign that the
Bucks built the best regular-season record only to come up short in the
playoffs.
In 2019, they fell to the eventual champion
Toronto Raptors in six games in the Eastern Conference finals.
The fifth-seeded Heat will face either the
Boston Celtics or Toronto Raptors for a place in the NBA Finals.
The Celtics lead their series against the
defending NBA champion Raptors three games to two.
Butler, who added 10 rebounds and six assists
and was a perfect eight-for-eight from the foul line, said the Heat’s
impressive 8-1 record so far in the playoffs means nothing now.
“All of that is behind us now,” he said. “We’ll
wait and see who we get out of Toronto and Boston and then we’ll lock in on
that.
“But it’s zero-zero now, we’ve got eight more
to get.”
The Heat trailed 28-19 after a chaotic first
quarter in which they committed six turnovers leading to nine Bucks points.
They trailed by as many as 13 in the first
period, but settled down in the second, out-scoring the Bucks 33-18 to take a
52-46 lead into halftime.
But Milwaukee, with Middleton leading the way,
refused to go away.
After going scoreless for more than six minutes
in the third period the Bucks put together an 8-0 run to pull within five
points.
Trailing 73-65 going into the final period, the
Bucks trimmed the deficit to four multiple times, but the Heat’s depth finally
proved too much.
“Obviously they missed their MVP,” Butler said.
“But we knew we were going to have to get one out of the mud and I think this
was the one.”
Antetokounmpo said he felt “lost” as he was
unable to contribute.
“Mentally it was a battle, but at the end of
the day you’ve got to trust your teammates and that’s what I decided to do,” he
said after the Bucks medical staff persuaded him not to risk further injury by
playing.
In Western Conference action, LeBron James
scored 36 points and Anthony Davis added 26 as the Los Angeles Lakers powered
to the finish in a 112-102 victory over the Houston Rockets.
The Lakers grabbed a 2-1 series lead and James
notched an NBA record 162nd career playoff win.
“It says that I’ve played with a lot of great teams,”
said James, who won two NBA titles with the Miami Heat and one with the
Cleveland Cavaliers.
“It says that I’ve played with a lot of great
teammates and some great coaches.”
James Harden scored 33 points with nine
rebounds and nine assists and Russell Westbrook added 30 points for Houston in
a back and forth battle that saw 16 lead changes.
The Lakers’ reserves scored 42 points, with
Houston’s only points off the bench the 16 of Jeff Green.
Rajon Rondo, who scored 21 off the bench for
Los Angeles, hit back-to-back three-pointers and came up with a steal and layup
as the Lakers surged ahead with a 17-5 scoring run to start the fourth quarter.
After putting up 64 points in the first half
Houston scored just 38 in the second and the Lakers posted their second
straight win of the series.
There was a frightening moment in the fourth
quarter, as Robert Covington and Davis collided as Davis rose for a rebound.
Davis’s elbow appeared to hit Covington in head
and he left the court holding a bloodied towel to his face, while Davis was
hurting from Covington’s elbow in his side.