The one-eight matchup between the Heat and the Bucks in the Eastern Conference playoffs seemed to be the biggest mismatch of them all, for a variety of reasons. Nothing took place during Miami’s 110-87 blowout victory on Sunday to change those perceptions.
Miami came into the postseason on an insane run, winning 37 of its final 39 regular season games. The Bucks, meanwhile, stumbled to the playoffs by dropping seven of their last nine.
Despite the lackluster pairing, or maybe because of it, Brandon Jennings tried to breathe some life into the series by going on record as saying the Bucks would take care of the Heat in six.
While that’s obviously not likely to happen, you can’t fault Jennings for the false bravado, and at least he backed up his words on the court, if only in the first half.
Jennings was fun to watch in the first two quarters, scoring 18 points (albeit on 14 shots) while temporarily keeping the game close. He scored on array of difficult shots, both inside and from three-point distance, and his Bucks were down by only seven points at the break after trailing by as many as 13 early.
Monta Ellis took on the scoring for Milwaukee in the third, getting going for 11 points in the period. The Bucks battled from 15 points down to close to within eight once again, but just like the Spurs did to the Lakers earlier on Sunday, Miami closed the quarter with a furious, momentum-seizing rally that all but sealed it.
It all started with LeBron James, who drove through traffic in the half court set to finish with a left-handed dunk at the rim that seemed to ignite his teammates. Chris Andersen got loose for dunks on consecutive possessions, and a free throw from James capped the 7-0 run that took just over two minutes of game time and had the Heat back up by 15 entering the fourth.
James finished with a near triple-double line of 27 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists, but got his points on just 11 shots -- and all but two of those came at the rim. Take a look at his shot chart:
That’s ridiculous. If James has the discipline to attack the rim in this way with these results, no one is stopping the Heat.
Jennings and Ellis finished with 26 and 22 points respectively, but no other Milwaukee player finished in double figures. The Bucks’ main rim protector, Larry Sanders, played only 18 minutes and was completely ineffective in stopping anything Miami wanted to do inside.
Look, there’s no getting around it: It’s going to be a short series for Milwaukee in the first round of the playoffs. The games will seem long due to the way Miami will do what they want when they want against the undermanned Bucks, but there will be short spurts of success in keeping the games close.
And really, that’s the best the Bucks can hope for under the circumstances.