© Michael McLoone-USA TODAY Sports
The Milwaukee Bucks waste away 16-point 4th quarter lead as the Miami Heat eliminate the East's top seed in the NBA Playoffs
For the second game in a row, the Milwaukee Bucks had the Miami Heat right where they needed them to be—in a huge deficit in the fourth and final quarter. However, it was not ultimately not meant to be as Jimmy Butler once again rose to the occasion and willed his team to a 128-126 overtime victory in Game 5 to send the top-seeded Bucks home and hand the Heat a ticket to the Eastern semifinals of the NBA Playoffs.
Butler was magnificent yet again, as he followed up his 56-point masterpiece in Game 4 with an encore of 42 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals. Most importantly, the former Marquette star was unfazed by the moment, scoring the game-tying layup with 0.5 of a second left in regulation to send the match to overtime.
Free-throw woes
The Bucks had a lot of things going for them. Superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo shrugged off his back trouble and had a massive double-double of 38 points and 20 rebounds, while fellow All-Star Khris Middleton had 33 points. But all of this would prove to be not enough as Milwaukee’s free-throw woes came back to haunt them once again.
The Bucks were a dismal 28-of-45, with Giannis going just 10-of-23 from the charity stripe. Jrue Holiday also missed one of his two free throws with two seconds remaining that left the door open for Butler to make the alley-oop layup off a great feed by Gabe Vincent.
Questionable tactical decisions
The Bucks also made several tactical decisions down the stretch that had fans up in arms. With just two seconds remaining in the game, Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer opted to sub out the towering Brook Lopez in favor of forward Pat Connaughton. That decision left the paint wide open for Butler to capitalize.
Then, after the Butler basket, the Bucks still had 0.5 of a second to work with and a timeout to strategize what play to run. Bud, though, did not use it and left Giannis to heave up a prayer from the opposite end. The same play happened in the dying seconds of overtime, as the Bucks also had a timeout remaining, which was not used. The Bucks’ last play ended up being a disaster, as they didn’t even get a shot off as time expired on the game and their season.
