Bucks heed Budenholzer’s plea
NBA PLAYOFFS BUCKS 111, MAGIC 96
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The Milwaukee Bucks still haven’t figured out how to slow down Nikola Vucevic. They did shut down his Orlando Magic teammates well enough to tie the Eastern Conference first-round series.
Giannis Antetokounmpo had 28 points and 20 rebounds and Milwaukee rode a fast start to beat the Magic 111-96 on Thursday night in Game 2. The victory came two days after the team that boasted the NBA’s best regular-season record opened the playoffs by losing 122-110 to Orlando.
“There’s an urgency,” Antetokounmpo said. “I’m not going to say there’s a fear factor — being down — but you know you have to be urgent.”
Milwaukee bounced back Thursday, building a 23-point lead in the first half, though Orlando got the margin down to nine in the fourth quarter. Orlando had no points in the paint for the entire first quarter and went nearly eight minutes without a basket during a first-half stretch.
Antetokounmpo said Bucks Coach Mike Budenholzer set the tone for Thursday’s game with the message he delivered during a film session.
“He told us if we want to win and if we want to go far and if we want to be us, we’ve got to play defense, and we didn’t do that in the first game,” Antetokounmpo said. “I think everybody took that personally. Nobody liked that. Nobody wants to hear that he’s not playing hard enough, so I think whole team came out playing hard. Everybody was playing hard.”
Brook Lopez scored 20 points and Pat Connaughton had 15 on 5-of-8 three-point shooting for Milwaukee. Eric Bledsoe had 13 points and Donte DiVincenzo added 11.
The Bucks withstood another huge effort from Vucevic, who followed up his 35-point effort in the opener by scoring 32 points. Nobody else on the Magic scored over 12 points.
“He’s a very, very good player,” Budenholzer said. “We have a ton of respect for him, but I think overall our defense was in a good place.”
That was particularly true in the first half.
After Vucevic made a jump shot to cut Milwaukee’s lead to four with 5:34 left in the first quarter, the Magic missed their next 13 field-goal attempts. Orlando wouldn’t make another basket and fell behind by 16 before Terrence Ross hit a jumper with 9:48 remaining until halftime.
But the Magic then missed their next six shots as the Bucks stretched their lead to 23.
“We’ve got to get the ball moving,” Magic coach Steve Clifford said. “We didn’t do that early. We did miss some shots. But definitely, their ball pressure — they were into us more, and it definitely impacted the way we played offense.”
Orlando made it somewhat interesting in the second half.
Vucevic scored 16 points in the third quarter alone to help the Magic cut the deficit to 12, though Milwaukee got the margin back up to 20 by the end of the period. Orlando continued to hang around and made it 101-92 on Markelle Fultz’s jumper with 3:56 left, but the Magic couldn’t get any closer.
Orlando again played without injured forward Aaron Gordon and guard Michael Carter-Williams. Gordon has a strained left hamstring, while Williams has a strained tendon in his left foot.
“I think Aaron is closer than Mike,” Clifford said. “He just doesn’t have the strength back in the leg, but actually watching him yesterday, they played some live two-on-two, and he’s moving a lot better than he was when they played on Monday. I think he’s closer, but it just depends on how things progress and how much stronger he feels by tomorrow.”
Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton scored just two points and shot 1 of 8. The All-Star forward has shot 5 of 20 from the floor so far in the series.
Antetokounmpo expressed confidence in Middleton after the game and noted that he contributed to the victory in other areas.
“I’ve seen Khris come off a bad game and the next game score 30, 35, 40,” Antetokounmpo said. “I’ve seen that. Personally, I know he’s going to be ready for Game 3.
He’s a big-time player.”
Game 3 of the best-of-7 series is Saturday.
HEAT 109, PACERS 10
Duncan Robinson hit his first six shots, all from three-point range, and finished with 24 points to help Miami beat Indiana and take a 2-0 lead in their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.
Robinson opened the game by making the Heat’s first three baskets, all threes. He didn’t miss until midway through the third quarter, and Robinson tied the Heat record for threes made in a playoff game with seven. He finished 7-of-8 shooting, all beyond the arc.
Goran Dragic scored 20 points for Miami, Jimmy Butler had 18 points and six assists, rookie Tyler Herro added 15 points off the bench, and Jae Crowder had 10.
Victor Oladipo, who had been questionable with an injured left eye, led Indiana with 22 points. Myles Turner and Malcolm Brogdon each had 17 points. T.J. Warren added 14 and Aaron Holiday had 12.
Game 3 is Saturday.
ROCKETS 111, THUNDER 98
James Harden had 21 points and nine assists and Houston made 19 of an NBA-record 56 three-point attempts to beat Oklahoma City for a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference series.
Former Thunder star Russell Westbrook was out for the Rockets again with a right quad strain, but plenty of other Houston players picked up the slack. Danuel House Jr. scored 19 points.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points for the Thunder, and Danilo Gallinari added 17.
Game 3 is Saturday.
LAKERS 111, TRAIL BLAZERS 88
Anthony Davis had 31 points and 11 rebounds and the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers bounced back from an opening loss to beat the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 2 of the first-round Western Conference playoff series.
LeBron James had 10 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 6 turnovers.. He had 23 points, 17 rebounds and a playoff career-high 16 assists in Game 1.
The Trail Blazers stunned the Lakers 100-93 in Game 1, but things went horribly wrong in Game 2. A poor performance got worse when All-Star guard Damian Lillard dislocated the index finger on his left hand in the third quarter. He left the game for good, and the team said X-rays were negative.
Lillard was held to 18 points after ripping the Lakers for 34 in Game 1.