Bucks blow big lead, rally to edge Nets in Game 3

The Bucks raced to a 21-point lead but had to come from behind, scoring the final six points after Durant’s 3-pointer made it 83-80 with 1:23 to play.

Holiday scored just nine points and shot 4 of 14 but made the biggest basket of the night.

Brooklyn led 83-82 when Bruce Brown missed a jumper with just over 20 seconds left. Antetokounmpo got the rebound, the Bucks worked the ball upcourt and Holiday drove to the basket to put Milwaukee ahead for good 84-83.

“He’s that kind of guy,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “I think the work he’s doing defensively, he’s putting a lot of work in there. To just take the ball and get to the basket and finish with a scramble defense, we needed that. We needed that one play from him, and he made it.”

After Brown missed his own driving layup attempt with just over 6 seconds left, Middleton got the rebound. Middleton made a pair of free throws with 2.1 seconds remaining to cap the scoring.

Kyrie Irving scored 22 and Brown had 16 for the Nets.

The Bucks started out intent on turning Game 3 into a complete reversal of Game 2, which they lost 125-86 as the Nets recorded their most lopsided playoff victory in franchise history.

Milwaukee grabbed a 30-9 lead in the first 10 ½ minutes but then got outscored 22-3 during a stretch that lasted nearly 9 ½ minutes as the Nets clawed their way back into the game.