The Playoff Series That Destroyed The Milwaukee Bucks…

The Playoff Series That Destroyed The Milwaukee Bucks…

I want you to wind the clock back about two years ago. It’s April of 2023. The Milwaukee Bucks found themselves with the best record in the entire NBA at 58 and 24. Their odds of winning a second title in 3 years were higher than any other team in the league that season, but someone thought otherwise. The Miami Heat were in a completely different situation. They barely scraped by in the regular season, finishing as the seventh seed in the East with a 44 and 38 record. The Miami Heat started the 2023 postseason with a tough loss to the Atlanta Hawks. After this, they were just one more loss away from their season being completely done for good. But they barely pulled it together in a win against the Chicago Bulls. But I mean, did it even matter? The Miami Heat were going into a slaughterfest against the best team in basketball, right? Absolutely not. That he took everyone by surprise and stole three of the first four games against Milwaukee in the series and they had a chance to close out the series in game five in a very hostile atmosphere. Game five in Milwaukee was a contest where the Bucks held the lead for most of the game. Going into the fourth quarter, Milwaukee had a 16-point lead. The Heat could have just waited to close out the series in front of their own home crowd, but Miami had a straight villain on their roster. This is the story of the playoff series that destroyed the Milwaukee Bucks. Written by Jimmy Butler inside a whistle and a basket for Butler. Little jab step and a three. It’s good for Butler. Back loose. [Music] One shot over the top. [Applause] To really understand the devastation that happened in 2023, we need to wind the clock back about another four years. It’s the summer of 2019 and the Miami Heat were in the thick of a mediocre nightmare of the franchise. A team that once drew nationwide coverage with the likes of Dwayne, Wade, and Shaq, and then eventually the big three of LeBron, D.Wade, and Bosch were at a painful aftermath in these dissolved dynasties. The Miami Heat went three straight seasons with brutally mediocre records. It was time for a change, and for South Beach, change wore the number 22. The Heat signed Jimmy Butler as a free agent in the summer of 2019 in hopes of lifting their curse of mediocrity. And to their liking, it actually worked. South Beach had their best record since the days of LeBron James. The Heat were back, but they would have some unreal competition out in the East. The Milwaukee Bucks were certainly no chumps. They finished with a dominant 60- win season in 2019, where they made their first conference finals appearance since 2001 and hosted their first MVP since Kareem Abdul Jabbar, which was a very long time ago. The Bucks were also back and they finished the 2020 regular season with an insane 56-7 record which would have been a 63-19 record in a normal 82 game season. All the regular season numbers are cool but they don’t mean a thing once the postseason hits. To start the 2020 postseason, the Milwaukee Bucks dominated the Orlando Magic in five games, while the Miami Heat made quick work of TJ Warren and the Indiana Pacers. In the second round, it was a matchup of the back-to-back one seed in the East versus a team that was hungrier than ever to make a deep playoff run. When players and staff were allowed to bring in their close family and friends into the bubble to support, Jimmy Butler didn’t bring anyone in, saying, “This is a business trip. If I were Milwaukee, I would be scared of this five seed because Jimmy Butler is a man on a mission. A steal by Butler stepping in front of Giannis and he slams it on the other end. What a pass inside. Hero to Igodonella. Drockage. Beautiful feed out of Bile with an easy dunk. Bam! With a great block from behind. Crockett will dance. Crockett with one. from 15. Got it. Beat the buzzer. Hero lobs it out and a bio smashes it over. [Music] And just like that, the Miami Heat took down the Titan of the Milwaukee Bucks in just five games. The Heat stunned the basketball world in 2020 because their run didn’t just stop in the second round, but they also upset the three-seated Boston Celtics and gave LeBron James and the Lakers a blood bath in the NBA finals before they eventually won the title. The Heat in 2020 were unexpected. This was just a fluke run, right? [Music] Fast forward to the 2021 NBA season and honestly not a lot changed. The Heat were still towards the bottom half of the playoff teams. The Bucks were still a top team in the East except Milwaukee made one pivotal change. The Bucks gave up Eric Bledo, George Hill, and pretty much their entire future away for two-way guard Drew Holiday. And while it didn’t quite show up in the standings, the Bucks improved a lot from last season with this move. Fast forward to April and the postseason had just started. And what better matchup than the three-seated Milwaukee Bucks versus the six-seated Miami Heat. A rematch from last year. Well, except it wasn’t close at all. The Milwaukee Bucks were not going to play with their food this time because they swept Miami in four games and went on to become the 2021 NBA champs. After back-to-back years with the one seed, Milwaukee made up for their epic failures and capitalized on the momentum of 2021. But Miami wasn’t done yet. They took full offense to the sweep and they would be back. In 2022, the Miami Heat completely flipped their strategy. Instead of tanking the regular season and making a heroic run in the playoffs, they actually took the regular season serious this year and clinched the one seed in the East. The Bucks also maintained their streak of claiming a top three seed in the East, winning 51 games to clinch the three seed. Except this year, Miami and Milwaukee didn’t butt heads in the playoffs. The Bucks spanked the Bulls in round one, but in a gritty and mucky sevengame series against the Celtics, they didn’t come out on top, losing in game seven at the TD Garden. Miami, on the other hand, capitalized on their one seed. They beat the Atlanta Hawks in round one in five games. They took down the 76ers with Harden and Embiid in six games. But finally, this team really got tested. It was game seven in Miami against a young and hungry Boston Celtics team. The winner of this game would have a chance to take down an old and aging dynasty of the Golden State Warriors. However, in the first half, it seemed like Boston wanted to secure their date with Curry and the Warriors. The Celtics went nuclear in the first half, getting out to a 32 to7 lead. Jimmy Butler made a life-saving effort in the second quarter, scoring 18 in just this period alone to bring the Heat within six points. Miami slowly chipped away at this lead with key role players like Max Stre, Kyle Lowry, and Bam Adabio all hitting timely shots. Fast forward to about 50 seconds left in this game. And Max Drew lets this absolute heat check fly and it somehow falls. The Celtics had the ball now and it’s Marcus Smart who can put the Heat out of reach for good, but he bricked it. And with the Heat down by two, Jimmy wanted to end this game on the spot. Tie for the lead. [Music] Loose and Horford Clank. And with this miss, the Boston Celtics took down the Heat in their own building. Now, how about them damn Celtics? The year is 2023 and a few key shifts happen in the NBA. Milwaukee didn’t mess around at all in the regular season. They got straight to business clinching the one seed in the East with a dangerous 58 and 24 record. The franchise’s best record since the NBA bubble. It seemed like the trio of Giannis, Middleton, and Holiday was all at its strongest form right now. And a second championship seemed like a reality. Headed into midappril, the Milwaukee Bucks had the clear best odds of walking away with the title. But the Miami Heat though, they were going to run it back with their little shenanigans. They clinched game seven in the Eastern Conference. And after a rocky loss to the Atlanta Hawks, the Heat locked in against the Chicago Bulls and claimed an 11-point victory. But I mean, this was just a game to see who could get murdered by the Milwaukee Bucks, right? [Music] It was game one of the series between the one seated Milwaukee Bucks and the eight- seed Miami Heat. What was supposed to be a one seed beatd down against the eight seed changed real fast in the first quarter. You could instantly tell the Heat took that 2021 loss personally because Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat were drilling shots in the first quarter. And to make matters even worse for Milwaukee, their Greek superstar came down right and drives into think he’s holding that back. He is. His injuries this year have been mainly knee. Giannis came down with a back contusion that would take him out for game one completely. Without the Greek freak on the floor, Miami went into kill mode where they dropped 130 points in this game to take care of the Bucks. Jimmy Butler 35 points, 11 assists, and three steals. And he was just getting started. Milwaukee in game two could not afford to fall down two zero at home despite Giannis being out with that back injury. The Milwaukee Bucks were in dire need of coming up with something special and something special is exactly what happened as the Bucks hit the fourth most amount of three-pointers in playoff history at the time. It was a ball explosion from the Bucks. I mean, Pat Connissson and Joe Engles on the bench nearly dropped 40 points together with 11 combined threes. The Bucks won this game 138 to 122 and were looking to survive while Giannis was out. Without Giannis and Ted Kmpo, the Bucks clearly looked outmatched. It took a historic shooting night just to take down the eight seed at home. The Bucks magic touch from deep finally wore off and it got ugly real quick for them. Jimmy Butler erupted in the first quarter with 17 points on six of eight shooting to give Miami a 29 to21 lead and from there the Heat never looked back. They extended their lead to 13 points at halftime with timely buckets from Lowry and Duncan Robinson. By the time the second half rolled around, it seemed like Milwaukee was just too far in the hole to come back, losing this game by 22 points. It was game four in South Beach. A Miami win pretty much guarantee a second round placement for the Heat while the Bucks were doing everything in their power from becoming the sixth one seed in league history to a fall to an eight seed in the first round. Luckily for Milwaukee, Giannis and Tatakumba was back and you could instantly tell the Bucks looked like their old selves again. Despite Jimmy Butler dropping 22 points while barely missing a shot in the first quarter, the Bucks weathered off the storm and claimed a 33 to28 lead at the end of this period. As the game progressed, the Bucks kept adding to their lead. They extended to seven points at halftime and made it 11 points by the end of the third quarter. Did Milwaukee finally find the answer to this white hot Miami Heat team? Well, I wouldn’t quite say that. Someone needed to call the cops in Miami because there was a wild Jimmy Butler on the loose fighting Counter [Music] [Applause] [Music] on three [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] playoff Jimmy officially. If we were to look back at any moment that gave Jimmy Butler the nickname Playoff Jimmy, it was this performance hands down. Playoff Jimmy channeled his inner Michael Jordan and dropped 56 points in this game to steal Miami a 3 to1 series lead. And it was just going to take one more game. It was back to the 414 in Milwaukee and he had a chance to pull off a feat that only five other teams in NBA history have done. While the Bucks were fighting their ass off not to be on the wrong side of history, Milwaukee though in the first half looked prepared as they dropped 69 points with clutch buckets from Giannis and Chris Middleton to hold this boiling hot Miami Heat team off. The Bucks add on another 10 points to this lead, building it up to 16 points. There was no shot we’d see another heroic comeback from Miami, right? The Heat instantly started to chip away at this lead with buckets from Bam and Kevin Love. Jimmy Butler was that confident in his team that he didn’t sub into the game until 7 and 1/2 minutes left. By the time Butler entered into the game, Miami had cut down this lead to just six points and Milwaukee was their pants. Fast forward about another four and a half minutes left in the game and Jimmy Butler goes on a scoring rampage to cut the lead from seven to a tied ball game at 111 apiece. And the rest of the game was wild. With 14 seconds left, Drew Holiday hit this free throw to make it a four-point game until Gabe Vincent pulls up like he’s 2016 Steph Curry and cuts this lead down to just one point. And in Milwaukee Bucks fashion, they nearly threw the ball away right after this. Holiday makes one of two free throws which gives playoff Jimmy one last chance over the top. [Music] Jimmy Ber ties the game with a half second to go. Playoff Jimmy is real, bro. He tied up the game with this impossible shot and it was headed into overtime. And the Bucks were not ready for overtime basketball and the aftermath of this devastation. And the Miami Heat become the sixth in NBA history to win as an eighth seed in the first round. [Music] The Heat are going to the NBA finals. What a win on the road. A first round loss to the Miami Heat with the best record in the NBA this season. Well, we need to start with Milwaukee who dismissed head coach Mike Budenhoer as first reported by you. Woj Damen Lord requested a trade out of Portland and today our Adrien Wjarowski reports that he is on his way to the Milwaukee Bucks. Certainly pulled that off. This is a big big big time day for the Milwaukee Bucks. Yeah, it is a huge day for the Milwaukee Bucks. I have a question. The second you saw you got the text that Drew Holiday is coming to Boston, were you in the back of your mind, you know, a lot of things have to happen. You know how tough it is to get through. In the back of your mind, are you like, we’re winning this At first, I was like, I can’t believe Milwaukee let this happen. So, thanks to the Bucks. Um, what’ you think of what the Bucks did with a with a great record, second best in the East, but parting ways with Adrien Griffin at this point? Uh, the Bucks are like, “Wait a minute. You know, we’re not good defensively. We haven’t gotten better. Can we beat Indiana? No, we can’t beat Indiana because we can’t stop Indiana. Can we beat the 76ers? No, we cannot beat the 76ers. And we damn sure can’t beat the Boston making a coach. We get there. Well, that’s because the Bucks then went ahead and waved Damen Lillard. So, now they’re taking a huge cap hit. There it is. Uh they’re waving Damen Lillard, stretching the remaining $113 million on his contract. that was in order to acquire. It’s how does this roster get better and then if it’s Milwaukee, do we need to pivot from Giannis? Three straight seasons here being eliminated in the first round. So Chana, as a player, knowing that they have not been quite good enough, where do you think the Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis Attento should go from here? Unfortunately, I think the time has ended in Milwaukee here with Giannis on this roster. [Music]

Like, Subscribe, and Turn On Post Notifications to be updated about new weekly content! This video recaps the intense 2023 NBA playoffs series between the Miami Heat and the Milwaukee Bucks, showcasing how the Heat defied expectations. The series was full of NBA moments that will be remembered for years to come. Enjoy these NBA highlights!
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