MILWAUKEE (AP) – The Milwaukee Bucks didn’t have their best player around for the full game. The Miami Heat did.
That pretty much made the difference yesterday as the top-seeded Bucks saw their path toward a championship face an early obstacle.
Jimmy Butler had 35 points and 11 assists, and the Heat capitalised on Giannis Antetokounmpo’s injury to beat the Bucks 130-117 on Sunday in an Eastern Conference playoff opener yesterday. Butler’s dazzling performance enabled the Heat to withstand the exit of Tyler Herro, who broke his right hand while diving for a loose ball just before halftime.
“He’s just a brilliant competitor,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He does it on both ends of the court. He has an innate feel for what’s necessary during the course of a game. We needed obviously some offensive punch, some triggers, something to settle us all down, particularly when we found out Tyler was out. Jimmy was able to do it in a lot of different ways.”
Now the Bucks wait to learn how long Antetokounmpo might be out because of a lower back bruise.
Antetokounmpo was driving to the basket with 4:13 left in the first quarter when he got foulled by Kevin Love and landed hard on his backside.
The two-time MVP got up slowly, stayed in the game to take his free throws and then headed to the locker room about two minutes later after picking up his second foul.
Although he returned to the game with 9:56 remaining in the second quarter, Antetokounmpo went to the locker room again with 8:33 left in the half and was ruled out for the rest of the game shortly afterward.
