Milwaukee Bucks in a 2-0 hole after dropping NBA Finals Game 2 to Phoenix Suns
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PHOENIX – Unfortunately for the Milwaukee Bucks, they have fallen into a pattern of dropping the first game of a series.
To get to the NBA Finals, they proved to be the Maison of the comeback, stitching improvements into successive games against Brooklyn and Atlanta in a way even Louis Vuitton would be envious. And in Game 2 Thursday night at Phoenix Suns Arena, the Bucks went in looking to add three elements to their Finals line off a Game 1 loss:
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They did two of the three, and they made Paul and Booker work. It’s just that the two Suns’ stars ripped apart the seams of the Bucks’ defense in every clutch moment in a 118-108 victory to send the Bucks home down 0-2 in the best-of-seven series.
Milwaukee will host Phoenix in Game 3 at Fiserv Forum at 7 p.m. Sunday.
BOX SCORE: Suns 118, Bucks 108
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Only four teams in NBA Finals history have come back from 0-2 down. The 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers and 2006 Miami Heat are the most recent Finals teams to come back from 0-2 deficits and win a title. The previous teams were the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers and the 1969 Boston Celtics.
The couple of times the Bucks built momentum late in the third quarter and in the fourth quarter, Paul and Booker always seemed to counter a strong defensive effort with a clutch bailout shot.
Booker hit 3 three-pointers in the fourth quarter and Paul hit a corner three to keep the Bucks from getting any closer than five points in the deciding quarter.
The Bucks halved a 10-point fourth quarter deficit thanks to an 8-3 run that made it 93-88, but then Giannis Antetokounmpo had to exit the game briefly to deal with an issue with his left foot. In the brief moments he was out of the game, Paul assisted Deandre Ayton on a bucket and Booker hit a three to make it 98-88. Antetokounmpo returned but immediately turned it over, and Booker hit another three to push their lead to 101-88 with 7 minutes, 18 seconds to go.
It was too large a deficit for Milwaukee to overcome, as they couldn’t respond with their own clutch offensive plays.
An Antetokounmpo baseline jumper made it 103-97, but Pat Connaughton missed a three — and Paul responded with his own three-pointer off consecutive Phoenix offensive rebounds.
Booker finished with 31 points on 12-of-25 shooting, including 7-of-12 from behind the three-point line. Paul had 23 points and eight assists.
Antetokounmpo had 42 points and 12 rebounds. He also had four assists, three blocks and a steal.
Per ESPN stats and Information, it was Antetokounmpo’s 10th game this postseason with at least 30 points and 10 rebounds, joining Shaquille O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, Elgin Baylor and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only players with 10 such games in a postseason.
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Unfortunately he didn’t get much help, as Khris Middleton scored 11 points on 5-of-16 shooting and Jrue Holiday had 17 points on 7-of-21 shooting. Connaughton had 14 points of the bench. Brook Lopez scored eight points on 4-of-10 shooting while P.J. Tucker added seven points and five rebounds.
The Bucks did win the points in the paint battle 54-28 and they held the Suns to just seven fast break points after giving up 20 in Game 1.
With 49.4 seconds left in the first half Antetokounmpo and the Bucks got a scare when he ran into Paul in the middle of the paint while Holiday came down to set up the offense. Antetokounmpo laid on the court for a minute, and briefly grabbed at his injured left knee, before getting up and breathing it out while the court crew wiped down the court. Antetokounmpo quickly answered the immediate question of his ability to finish out the half by closing quickly on Chris Paul in the corner on the next trip down.
Any lingering thoughts about that were answered out of the gate in the third quarter when Antetokounmpo tried to reel the Suns in. Phoenix took a 15-point lead on a Booker three at the 10:46 mark, and the two-time Most Valuable Player scored 13 straight points for the Bucks to cut the lead down to 70-61. Lopez and Middleton got into the offense then, with Middleton’s first three-pointer at the 6:14 mark cutting the Suns lead to 71-66.
Milwaukee nearly forced a shot clock violation on the next trip down but Paul bailed his team out with a corner three as the clock expired. Then after Antetokounmpo missed a pair of free throws, Booker hit a 15-footer and the arena shook with the Suns back up 10. Connaughton hit a three, which was immediately answered by Booker knocking down his own right in front of Middleton.
The Bucks couldn’t get closer than that over the final four minutes of the third.
Antetokounmpo scored 22 of the Bucks’ 33 points in the third quarter.
Phoenix ran into the half on a 15-4 run to take a 56-45 lead into the break as Milwaukee could not find the bottom of the basket after Pat Connaughton tied the game at 41 with 4:52 to go in the half.
From there, the Bucks missed eight of their next 10 shots.
But the Suns had started to turn the tide of play earlier in the quarter, when Antetokounmpo was on the bench. The Bucks had a 33-30 lead when he sat down at the 8:56 mark and when he returned two minutes later the Suns led 39-35 — a stretch punctuated by a tip slam by Ayton after Holiday blocked Booker. It was the last lead Milwaukee would hold in the half, as they couldn’t do more than tie the game the one time on the Connaughton triple.
Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting in the first half, including two missed threes. He went 2 for 4 from the free throw line and pulled in eight rebounds. Holiday was just 3 for 14 (seven points) but had two blocks and a steal. Middleton was 2 for 10 (four points). Tucker had seven points while Lopez had four. Bridges led the Suns with 13 and Booker had 10. Paul had eight points.
In the first half Phoenix was 11 for 24 from behind the three-point line while Milwaukee had a 26-14 advantage in points in the paint.
Those totals were largely built in the first quarter when the Bucks scored 20 of their 29 first quarter points in the paint while the Suns didn’t record a single point in that area. Instead the Suns hit eight, three-pointers as the Bucks took a 29-26 lead after one. Milwaukee was aggressive in going to the rim to start the game, attempting just four three-pointers. Meanwhile, they swarmed the Suns by not switching but by quickly collapsing on Paul and Booker. That left Crowder, Bridges, Johnson and Torrey Craig open for threes, which they were able to knock down. That prevented the Bucks from building anything more than a four-point lead in the quarter.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Bucks in an 0-2 hole after dropping NBA Finals Game 2 to Phoenix Suns, 118-108