Bucks bounce back after blowing big lead to beat Bulls

MilWaUKEE – on a night when their usually potent offense was searching for answers, the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks had to rely on their defense in their playoff opener.

Fortunately for the Bucks, that’s the one part of their game that was at a championship level.

Giannis antetokounmpo had 27 points and 16 rebounds, and the third-seeded Bucks recovered after blowing a 16-point lead to beat the sixth-seeded Chicago Bulls 93-86 in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series Sunday.

“We’ve got to win the ugly games,” said Jrue Holiday, whose 3-pointer with 5:03 left put the Bucks ahead for good. “i feel like today was ugly. it was a battle and it was tough, but it was an ugly one.”

Holiday’s 3-pointer was part of an 8-0 run that gave the Bucks an 85-78 edge. The Bulls got the margin down to one but could never regain the lead, as Zach laVine missed a potential tying 3-pointer from nearly 30 feet away with 29 seconds left.

“i thought it was a good shot,” laVine said. “We were down three. i got a really clean look.”

Robinson makes eight 3s, Heat top Hawks in Game 1

MiaMi – duncan robinson couldn’t miss shots. Trae young couldn’t make shots.

in simplest terms, that’s how Game 1 went for Miami and atlanta.

robinson came off the bench to set a franchise playoff record with eight 3-pointers, and the top-seeded Heat forced young into matching the worst-shooting game of his career on the way to a 11591 win over the eighth-seeded Hawks in the opener of an Eastern Conference first-round series Sunday.

“it’s always nice to throw the first punch,” robinson said. “But in the grand scheme of things, it’s just winning one game.”

robinson scored 27 points on 9-of-10 shooting for the Heat, 8 of 9 from 3-point range. Jimmy Butler scored 21, p.J. Tucker added 16 and Kyle lowry had 10.

But this wasn’t about offense for Miami. it was about defense, so much so that even Heat coach Erik Spoelstra – a former point guard himself – spent some possessions in a defensive stance, clapping his hands and imploring his team to dig a little bit deeper on that end of the floor.

“you have to be on edge,” Spoelstra said.

The edge, for Miami, was razor sharp. young went 1 for

12, matching his effort against Chicago on Jan. 23, 2019.

“you’ve got to give them credit,” young said. “They came out aggressive.”