What we learned from the Milwaukee Bucks' 123-97 loss to the Miami Heat

Just when the Milwaukee Bucks appeared to have a breakthrough on defense, holding two straight opponents to under 100 points, they regressed in a 123-97 blowout loss at home to the Miami Heat on Tuesday night. The Bucks, who currently hold the third-best record in the Eastern Conference, were dominated from start to finish by the Heat.

Here are two takeaways from the embarrassing defeat.

First half set the tone

Even without star forward Jimmy Butler, who’s away from the Heat for personal reasons, the Bucks still couldn’t keep track of Miami’s shooters. As a result, the Heat finished the first half shooting 12-of-21 from long distance to help them erect a 69-52 lead at the halftime break.

Miami’s perimeter snipers almost couldn’t miss as Duncan Robinson went 4-of-5, while young big man Nikola Jovic made 4-of-5. Tyler Herro added three more triples in a three-point barrage that the Bucks ultimately couldn’t recover from.

“They move without the ball, they share the ball, that’s how they play,” Rivers shared.

“We didn’t handle that very well. We’ll fix that.”

Duncan was playing out of his mind tonight.
Not much you can do when he's shooting like that 🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/P48MnKJljK
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) February 14, 2024

Comeback was short

Milwaukee tried to mount a comeback and pulled to within nine, 79-70, with seven minutes left in the third. However, Miami’s three-point shooting came alive again as Jovic, Kevin Love, and Robinson drained three-pointers to help raise the Heat’s lead back to double-figures. A 19-6 Heat run in the last six minutes of the third gave them a huge 98-76 lead heading to the fourth.

After the game, Bucks star Damian Lillard said the Bucks couldn’t keep up with the Heat’s man and ball movement, which led to numerous open looks. And in the NBA, giving up open looks to a team known for its outside sniping often means disaster.

“I think it was just the movement. Duncan Robinson, Herro, they were just kind of running around a lot of the ball. See a couple go in, and our offense didn’t really help our defense. We was in a lot of scramble situations where we were behind the play and they shot the ball well,” Lillard said.

On to the next. pic.twitter.com/MuYo7VHWQ7
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) February 14, 2024

First half set the tone

Comeback was short

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