Milwaukee is in tough, familiar spot for Game 3

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — For the second time this postseason, the Milwaukee Bucks have staggered home with a 20 deficit and key players not shooting straight.

Milwaukee fans waited 47 years to see the NBA Finals return to their city. They will end up watching Chris Paul, Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns celebrate a championship if the home team can’t turn things around quickly. “We have been down 02 before,” Bucks AllStar Khris Middleton said. “Not saying we can do the same exact thing we did last time. It’s going to be tough. That’s a great team over there. But we’ve just got to stay the course.”

Game 3 is Sunday, the first Finals game in Milwaukee since 1974, so it figures to be a raucous scene at the arena.

“We’ve got to be us and we’ve got to be the hungrier team, and so that’s what we’ll do,” Paul said.

The Suns had two doubledigit victories in Phoenix, where they were largely in control throughout the second half in both games. No team has overcome a 30 deficit in the NBA Finals, so the Bucks’ situation is dire.

But they battled back from a situation that appeared just as bleak last month.

The Bucks dropped two games in Brooklyn to start the Eastern Conference semifinals and were even less competitive there than they were in Phoenix.

“Game 2 we got smacked, embarrassed,” Middleton recalled. “A lot of people thought our season was done. We still believed in ourselves.”

The Bucks took the next two at home to even things up and won the series in a Game 7 thriller in Brooklyn, but they had some help in that comeback. The Nets’ Kyrie Irving missed the last three games with a sprained ankle and James Harden was limited by a hamstring strain.

No such luck for the Bucks this time.

Booker and Paul have combined for 113 points, passing Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson (106 in 2018) for the most points from a starting backcourt in the NBA Finals in the last 50 years.

Middleton shot 5for16 in Game 2, while Jrue Holiday put up 4for14 and 7for21 clunkers in Phoenix. He has the task of trying to guard Booker and Paul, perhaps sapping some of the effort he can give on the other end.

“It’s the Finals. We’re playing for the prize,” Booker said. “I don’t think there’s going to be a storm that we haven’t seen.”

Matt York / Associated Press Milwaukee, in an 02 hole, needs Khris Middleton (22) to improve on his 5for16 shooting from Game 2.