Heat falls to brink of first-round sweep with second straight blowout loss to Bucks
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The Miami Heat, less than seven months removed from a thrilling run to the 2020 NBA Finals, is on the verge of a first-round sweep at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Bucks routed the Heat, 113-84, in Game 3 on Thursday, delivering a second straight blowout win against Miami to take a virtually insurmountable 3-0 series lead in the first round of the 2021 NBA playoffs.
Last year, the Heat’s unlikely run to the NBA Finals became serious when it shocked Milwaukee with a second-round win inside the 2020 NBA Bubble. Now the Bucks are one win away from getting their revenge after a wire-to-wire win in front of 17,000 at AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami.
The Heat will now need to complete the first 3-0 series comeback in NBA history to avoid a first-round exit. Miami will try to save its season Saturday with Game 5 back at home. A loss would leave the Heat on the wrong end of a sweep in a best-of-7 series for only the second time in franchise history.
The same issues persisted for Miami on Thursday as in its 34-point loss to the Bucks in Game 2 on Monday in Milwaukee. Bam Adebayo again failed to crack 18 points. The Heat again shot worse than 30 percent from three-point range and couldn’t even break 40 percent from the field. Miami again trailed by double digits at the end of the first quarter and never cut Milwaukee’s lead to single digits in the second half.
The Heat started Thursday with a 26.1-percent performance from the field in the first quarter and trailed 26-14. Miami trailed 49-36 at halftime after shooting just 31.1 percent from the field and 25 percent from three-point range. Star forward Jimmy Butler scored 14 of the Heat’s first 25 points and no one else had more than five in the first half. Adebayo and guard Goran Dragic, inserted into the starting lineup after coming off the bench for the first two games, were the only other players to make multiple field goals in the first half.
Butler broke out of a slump with 19 points on 7-of-17 shooting after he averaged just 13.5 points per game on 29.1-percent shooting in Games 1 and 2, but Adebayo’s struggles continued. The star post player finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists, and is now averaging just 14, 7.7 and 4.3 in the 2021 playoffs.