Bucks’ Jrue Holiday on Devin Booker Steal: I Was in ‘Right Place at the Right Time’

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Milwaukee Bucks point guard Jrue Holiday couldn’t believe his luck, either. 

As time wound down on the Bucks’ 123-119 victory in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker spun toward Holiday in the lane while trying to give his team the lead with 18 seconds remaining. 

All Holiday had to do was extend his hands to take the ball away, which the veteran did with ease. Four dribbles later, Holiday lobbed the ball to teammate Giannis Antetokoumpo for a highlight reel alley-oop that rivals the Greek Freak’s Game 4-saving block. 

“[Booker] turned right into me,” Holiday told reporters about the steal. “I guess I was just in the right place at the right time.”

Asked about the decision to throw the lob to Antetokounmpo over Phoenix’s Chris Paul to finish off the sequence, Holiday summed up his thoughts rather simply:

It was one of three steals on the night by Holiday, who proved as vital as any player on the Bucks in Game 5. In helping Milwaukee take a 3-2 series lead, the 31-year-old notched 27 points, 13 assists and four rebounds. It’s also the sixth time this postseason Holiday has recorded double-digit assists. Milwaukee has only lost once when that’s the case. 

But it wasn’t the way he distributed the ball Saturday night that moved his play into Bucks’ lore, it was how he acquired it—swiping Booker in the waning seconds of a crucial road game.

Now Milwaukee has a chance to clinch its first title since 1971 at home because of it.