Heat take 2-1 series lead with 121-99 victory over Bucks as Jimmy Butler scores 30

MIAMI – The Milwaukee Bucks spoke about carrying the focus from a Game 2 victory over the Miami Heat on the road to the Kaseya Center on Saturday evening, but that vision got blurry in a hurry as the Heat drilled 63% of its three-pointers in a 66-point first half en route to a 121-99 victory to take a 2-1 series lead over the top-seeded Bucks.

"We've got a really good team," Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer said. "This group's been together. There's a ton of confidence in that locker room, players that can play and execute at a high level. It's one game today.

"We weren't our best and we've got to look at that, we've got to own that and be better going into the next game knowing that we've got a really good team and really good players."

Milwaukee will once again try to even the series in Game 4 on Monday night and fight against NBA history: According to the NBA, the team that win Game 3 of a 1-1 best-of-seven series go on to win the series 73.3% of the time (162-59) since 1984.

BOX SCORE: Heat 121, Bucks 99

After a monster performance in Game 2, Bucks center Brook Lopez was held to six points on 3-of-9 shooting. Fellow big man Bobby Portis battled foul trouble throughout and eventually fouled out with nine points in 23 minutes. Jrue Holiday had 19 points, but scored just nine over the final 3½ quarters of play. Khris Middleton had 23 points.

Jimmy Butler goes off…again

In a Game 1 victory at Fiserv Forum, Miami’s superstar scored 35 points 15-of-27 shooting – with every make coming from inside the three-point arc. He was also 5 for 8 from the free throw line, and handed out 11 assists. To a man, the Bucks said they allowed the Marquette University alumnus to get too comfortable in the early going – to find space in the midrange and fall into a rhythm that proved too much to slow as the game wore on.

Butler had a nice Game 2 (25 points on 8-of-12 shooting), but the Bucks were so hot from the three-point line that it didn’t have much of an affect.

Then came Game 3. Butler was magnificent, outdueling Jrue Holiday’s best efforts from the opening tip. Butler scored 17 of the Heat’s 29 first quarter points but he used the entire court. He went 3 for 3 from behind the three-point line and 3 for 5 from two. He scored just four more points in the second quarter, but opened the third quarter with four points in the first five minutes.

The game’s best players are going to get their points – even when matched up with a top-flight individual defender like Holiday – but how and when Butler scored his were nearly as impactful as the totals.

He turned the game on its head late in the first quarter, leading the Heat on a 14-0 run to take the lead for good by scoring a dozen of those points. He got to the free throw line, he hit threes and scored inside.

“I mean, Jimmy is going to be Jimmy,” Holiday said. “He knocked down some threes today. That definitely helped. He hit three in what, the first half, which is a bit uncharacteristic.

"He usually does a lot of things in the paint or at the free throw line, but knocking down threes like that definitely opens up lane for him to drive and everything. I think another thing that I can do is keep him off offensive boards and back cuts. I think he got me a couple times on back cuts.”

Butler helped the Heat lead by as many as 18 in the first half and then pushed it to 19 halfway through the third quarter. He took a hard fall later but stayed in the game for a bit before ultimately heading to the locker room just before the period ended. Miami said Butler could return, but there was no need for it. He finished with 30 points in 28 minutes on 12 of 19 shooting, including a 4 for 4 mark from behind the three-point line. He also had four assists.

“Just keep contesting his shots,” Middleton said. “I mean, he was 4 for 4 from three. He shot the ball well, so you have to credit him on that. But I think for the most part we did an OK job of just staying into his body, but we just gotta be better.

"That guy plays so random all over the place with the ball, bringing it from full court, getting the catches, and then just making plays downhill. Just gotta do a better job of trying to keep him out of the paint a little bit more, trying to keep him away from his sweet spots, stuff like that.”

Familiar issues haunt Bucks

The Bucks didn’t lose a whole lot in the regular season, especially after dropping a pair of back-to-back games in Miami Jan. 14-16. From that point on in the year, they went 31-6 before resting all of their players for the final two losses of the season.

But, when they did lose games, a few things tended to happen:

• They turned the ball over.

• They gave up second chance points.

• The other team shot at a high clip.

Unfortunately for the Bucks, they checked all three of those boxes in the worst way on Saturday.

In falling behind by 13 at the half, the Heat had scored 10 points off Bucks turnovers and another five on seven offensive rebounds. Along with that, Miami shot an incredible 63.2% from behind the three-point line (12 for 18).

Now, 13 points is not a huge margin in the league – and the Bucks had a chance to reset at the break. Unfortunately, they came out in the third quarter and promptly turned it over three times in the first two minutes to stifle any sort of momentum they hoped to generate.

For the game:

• The Bucks turned it over 18 times, leading to 21 Heat points.

• Miami scored 13 second-chance points off 8 offensive rebounds.

• The Heat were shooting 51% from behind the three-point line and 55% from the field with under four minutes to go in the game before the Bucks' starters were pulled.

“They were shooting the ball really well, they were moving it really well, so gotta give some credit to them," Grayson Allen said. “I think we could be a little sharper in the rotations, a little quicker to get hands up on closeouts, just make the shots 10, 15, 20% harder and hopefully it ends up in them missing more.”

Holiday and Middleton had five turnovers apiece for Milwaukee.

“Just accept that double team and get our spacing right," Middleton said of handling the Miami double-team. "If they want to double team us, we have some of the best players; we think. The only way by beating that double team is to hit that open man out and play from there. It’s 4-on-3 on the backside, so we’ve got to do a better job of fighting that double team, being smarter and not getting ourselves into terrible turnover situations.”

Giannis Antetokounmpo misses Game 3 with back injury

Antetokounmpo did not practice on Friday before the team left for Florida, though he did some individual work beforehand. Initially listed as questionable to play Saturday, Budenholzer said before the game Antetokounmpo would not play.

Budenholzer added that Antetokounmpo continues to make progress.

"I think we'll continue to monitor him through the day tomorrow, through the day the next day," Budenholzer said. "These things, I don't think it's always just a linear thing. He's not in a place where he can go. So, we'll just continue to monitor him, work with him and hope for the best."

The Bucks' coach would not specify what Antetokounmpo may be preventing him from returning to action, but said that having Antetokounmpo go through his day-to-day work has a benefit rather than ruling him out for the series entirely.

"I think all players have a day of game routine and to some degree I think he keeps that and needs that," Budenholzer said. "Then there's a point where together we communicate, we work together and decisions are made. But a player's game day routine is important and that day that he does play, it's going to be important to him too. I think it's been good for him. I think the communication ahs been high level and we'll just continue to monitor him and see how he does the next day or two."

Play of the game is Jimmy Butler's dead-eye three-pointer

With about a minute left in the first quarter, the Heat were in the midst of their game-turning 19-point run when Holiday turned the ball over and then looked to make a play going the other way, and he nearly did when he almost stripped Bam Adebayo in the post. Adebayo collected the ball and kicked it out to Butler – but rather than close on Butler, Holiday elected to front Adebayo. Butler paused for a moment, and when Holiday didn’t move he knocked down a three-pointer to give the Heat a 27-21 lead. Butler scored 17 points in the first quarter, which the Heat took a 29-21 lead in, and as a team the Heat went 5 for 10 from behind the three-point line. The cold blooded – yet wide open – triple was an indicator of how things would go the rest of the way for both teams.

Video of the game is Jimmy Butler's hard fall

Unfortunately, the first three games of the series has now been defined by the best players for each team exiting a game following a hard fall. Butler hit the court hard in the third quarter but kept playing through it – which included more contact. He finally had to head to the Heat locker room before the fourth quarter began with a bruised glute.

Five numbers

1-1 Bucks playoff record without Antetokounmpo this season and 4-2 in his career when he’s sat out. Both of those losses have come against Miami, the first being on Sept. 8, 2002 in the “bubble.”

3 Rank all-time in playoff scoring for Middleton, as he passed Hall of Famer Sidney Moncrief for that distinction in the third quarter. He trails only Antetokounmpo and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

9 Points for Heat guard Duncan Robinson in the second quarter in helping the Heat build an 18-point lead.

19-0 Run the Heat went on at the end of the first half and into the start of the second, flipping a 21-15 deficit to a 34-21 advantage.

5:37 Game time the Bucks went scoreless in that stretch. They went 0 for 7 and turned it over four times.

What is the Bucks playoff schedule?

• Game 4: Monday at Miami, 6 p.m.

• Game 5: Wednesday at Milwaukee, 8:30 p.m.

• Game 6: Friday at Miami, TBD*

• Game 7: April 30 at Milwaukee, TBD** if necessary

More: Here's the Bucks' roster for the NBA playoffs

More: Bucks vs. Heat Game 3 odds, predictions for NBA playoff series

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Without Giannis, Bucks fall 121-99 to Heat in Game 3