Jimmy Butler scored 42 points as the Miami Heat staged a second straight stunning fourth-quarter rally before winning 128-126 in overtime in game five to complete an upset of the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.
Two nights after outscoring the Bucks 30-13 in the final six minutes of a 119-115 victory in Miami, the Heat produced another huge comeback and tied the game on a Butler lay-up with half a second left in regulation.
Miami went on to become the sixth No.8 seed to beat a No.1 seed.
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The last time the feat was achieved was in 2012 when the Philadelphia 76ers, featuring current Bucks guard Jrue Holiday, capitalised on Derrick Rose’s knee injury to beat the top-seeded Chicago Bulls.
The Heat advanced to a second-round series with the fifth-seeded New York Knicks, who earlier completed their 4-1 series win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“Because we’ve been in so many of these close games in the fourth quarter, our guys take pride — a lot of pride — in our mental toughness and physical toughness going down the stretch, particularly in close games,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
“We had to show that. We had to show that in all four of the wins.”
Bam Adebayo put the Heat ahead for good by dunking in a put-back of Butler’s missed driving lay-up attempt with 4:44 left in overtime.
The Bucks trailed 128-126 and had the ball in the closing seconds, but the clock ran out before Grayson Allen could take a shot as he drove towards the basket.
Adebayo had 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Gabe Vincent added 22 points.
Giannis Antetokounmpo had 38 points and 20 rebounds for the Bucks, though he shot just 10 of 23 on free-throw attempts. Khris Middleton added 33 points.
Milwaukee led 102-86 after three quarters but shot just five of 25 from the floor in the fourth quarter and overtime.
The Heat tied the game on two occasions late in the fourth quarter before Middleton made two free throws to put Milwaukee back ahead with 27.8 seconds left.
Then things got interesting.
After calling a timeout, the Heat got the ball to Butler, whose three-point attempt missed with 18 seconds left. Holiday made two free throws with 14 seconds remaining to make it a four-point game, but Vincent’s three-pointer cut the lead to one with 8.4 seconds left.
The Bucks had the ball in the backcourt when Holiday threw an errant pass that eluded Middleton.
Miami’s Kyle Lowry initially was called for a foul as he chased the loose ball, but the Heat successfully challenged the call and it was ruled a jump ball.
Brook Lopez tipped the ball to Antetokounmpo, whose pass nearly went out of bounds before Middleton saved it to Holiday. After getting fouled with 2.1 seconds left, Holiday missed his first free throw before sinking the second to make it 118-116.
After the Heat called timeout, Vincent stood in front of the Bucks bench and threw an inbounds pass to Butler, who was waiting under the basket to make the tying score.
“Just get the ball to Jimmy,” Vincent said post-match.
“The game plan was simple: Get the ball to Buckets and let him do what he does.
“Max set a great screen, Jimmy created some space and went up and got it.”
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