The Miami Heat defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 123-97 on Tuesday night at Fiserv Forum, stopping them from winning three games in a row despite missing three key players.

The Heat (29–25) won for the fifth time in their previous seven games despite missing star Jimmy Butler, starting guard Terry Rozier, and important reserve Josh Richardson. Five players scored in double figures, and the team also scored 35 points off Bucks turnovers.

Since January 20–24, the Bucks (35–20) have not won three straight games.

On Thursday, Milwaukee’s final game before the all-star break is away to Memphis.

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With 7:40 remaining in the game, head coach of the Bucks Doc Rivers benched his starters, allowing them to score 29 points. Using 11 of 18 shots, Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with 23 points. In addition, he had two blocks, eight rebounds, and eleven rebounds.

Bobby Portis, Malik Beasley, and Damian Lillard each had sixteen. After starting for an injured Khris Middleton, Jae Crowder finished the game with two points on one of his one shots in eighteen minutes. Brook Lopez finished with three rebounds, seven points, and a block.

Tyler Herro, a native of Greenfield, led the Heat with 24 points and five assists, while Nikola Jović finished first with 19. Bam Adebayo scored 16 points, Duncan Robinson scored 23, and Kevin Love scored 19 points after coming off the bench with five three-pointers. Off the bench, Jaimie Jacquez Jr. also scored twelve.

Heat moves, resulting in hot shooting

Throughout the first half, Miami consistently ran around the perimeter, putting pressure on Milwaukee’s halfcourt defence and forcing them to not only chase but also fight over screens. Additionally, the Heat passed the ball around to find an open shooter even when a Bucks defender stayed close. This led to a 60% shooting percentage (12 for 20) from beyond the three-point line before Herro’s buzzer-beating heave.

With Robison going 5 for 6, Jović going a season-best 4 for 5, and Herro going 3 for 5, the Heat led 69-52 at the half.

“That’s how they play; they move without the ball and share it,” stated Rivers. “We weren’t very good at handling that. We’ll address that.

Then, Adebayo capitalised on the spacing, scoring 14 points (6 of 10), 12 of which came in the paint.

Miami was able to capitalise on eight Milwaukee errors for 12 points by continuing to be active on the defensive end of the court.

While some of those plays—like Patrick Beverley’s pass to Lopez’s chest when he wasn’t expecting it, or Lillard’s pass to Antetokounmpo that went out of bounds, or Antetokounmpo losing control on a fast break—were not “forced” by Miami, the Heat never stood still, putting themselves in a position to take advantage of the additional opportunities.

Miami shot 56% overall and 57.1% from three-point range in the first half.

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Even though the Heat’s shooting slumped as was to be expected in the second half, the Bucks were unable to fully recover from their deficit. At 7 minutes and 10 seconds into the third quarter, Milwaukee pulled within nine points, 79-70, but Jović, Love, and Robinson quickly made clutch threes to put Miami up 92 points four minutes later.

Miami led 98-76 going into the fourth quarter after outscoring the Bucks 19-6 over the last 6:30 of the pivotal third quarter. 16 out of 30 shots (or 53%) were made from beyond the three-point arc.

Regarding the Heat’s offensive success, Lillard stated, “It was a lot of off the ball movement.”

“We kept coming in because we knew we were outmatched by their size and they were just spraying the ball around. They had a lot of actions where they had a smaller guy in the dunker and they were rolling them down the middle because they were kind of positioning our smaller guy to be the guy to lift up against him.

“I believe it was merely the motion. Herro and Duncan Robinson were just generally around the ball a lot. Seeing a few go in didn’t do anything to strengthen our defence on offence. They shot the ball brilliantly, and we found ourselves behind the play in several of our scramble situations.

“I think there were some things we could have done better to maybe disturb the offence a little bit, but sometimes it’s like that. However, they started.

Miami maintained its composure offensively as well, spreading the ball about and trying to get the best shot even as Milwaukee started to cut into the advantage. Especially Adebayo and Herro avoided becoming bogged down in trying to accomplish too much on their own. Herro and Robinson each had five assists, while Adebayo recorded a triple-double with 12 rebounds and 11 assists.

pivotal moment

Early in the third quarter, Lillard and Giannis helped the Bucks get back into the game. Lillard made two three-pointers and three free throws, while Antetokounmpo scored four points and assisted on two more baskets.

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Abruptly, a 17-point deficit began to narrow, and with 7:10 remaining in the quarter, Lillard converted a floater off an Antetokounmpo screen to cut the Miami lead to nine points.

However, after Antetokounmpo mishandled the ball, Jović made a three-point shot, and the Bucks’ main players failed to score in any of their subsequent two-man drills.

When Lillard pulled up behind an Antetokounmpo screen, his three-point shot struck the hoop, and the player’s attempt at a layup while rolling his screen was also unsuccessful. The Bucks were never able to tie the score after the Heat made a basket to extend their lead to double figures.

Too many mistakes for the Bucks

The Bucks gave up the ball 15 times on Tuesday because they were just unable to cling onto it. More importantly, though, the Heat capitalised on their openers’ 29 points, which coincidentally happened to be the game’s margin at 113-84 as spectators began to leave the arena with 7:40 remaining in the contest.

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“Just the speed, pace, they were quicker on everything, on both ends,” Rivers said.

“You have these nights. You hate ‘em, but it is what is. For as bad as it looked defensively I thought our offense was way worse tonight. I thought it started early. We were shooting 51% at halftime and I thought we were playing just awful offense. And I thought that started our defense.