The Milwaukee Bucks are who I thought they were. The number one seed in the Eastern Conference.
The Heat led by as many as 23 points in a first half, the team rung up 73 points despite playing without Jimmy Butler and Goran Dragic.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton scored 33 points each. The Bucks overcame a huge early deficit to get a 130-116 win over the Miami Heat on Thursday to clinch the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
Duncan Robinson had 21 points for the Heat, who lost to Milwaukee for the first time this season after winning the first two meetings.
Butler missed his second straight game with a sore right ankle. Dragic sat out with a sprained left ankle after injuring it Tuesday. Miami had 19 turnovers.
Bledsoe had nine points and five assists in his second game back for the Bucks after missing the first two games in the bubble after testing positive for the coronavirus. The second straight game where Milwaukee allowed 73 points in the first half after the Nets also had 73 before halftime en route to a 119-116 win on Tuesday.
“It’s not like we were up 40. The way the NBA game is now, you have to play consistently for 48 minutes,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “There’s going to be a lot of ebbs and flows back and forth. You have to give them credit. They stepped up their pressure. We felt that more in the second half.”
Robinson made a 3-pointer to end a scoring drought of almost four minutes for Miami with about 6 1/2 minutes to go. The Heat was outscored 38-18 in the 4th quarter.
The beat goes on in the bubble.
Heat play the Suns on Saturday night. The Bucks play Dallas.
