This simply was not supposed to be the result the Milwaukee Bucks were looking for in the Orlando bubble. Clearly the best team in the National Basketball Association regular season with a record of 56 wins and 17 losses, the Bucks seemed to be uncomfortable as a unit down the stretch, and over the last week, were soundly beaten by a Miami Heat team in five games in the Eastern Conference semifinal.
On Tuesday, the Heat beat the Bucks 103-94 to win the series four games to one. Yes, the Bucks were missing their star center Giannis Antetokounmpo with an ankle injury, but the bottom line is the Heat took a stranglehold on the series well before the Greek Freak went down.
A major reason why the Heat have advanced to the Eastern Conference Final, and await the winner of the Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors, has been the steady presence of Butler, who Miami acquired from the Philadelphia 76ers in a four-team blockbuster deal on July 6. In the game on Tuesday, Butler had a double double as he had 17 points and 10 rebounds. Butler led the Heat in rebounding, and was the co-leader for the 76ers in scoring. Goran Dragic also scored 17 points. In the postseason to date, Butler is averaging 21.8 points per game and 2.1 steals per game to lead Miami.
Another reason why Miami has reached the final four, has been their consistent depth from a number of players. On Tuesday, six Heat players reached double digits in scoring. In addition to Dragic and Butler, Jae Crowder had 16 points, Tyler Herro had 14 points, Bam Adebayo had 13 points and Kelly Olynyk had 12 points.
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