

Through three quarters, only Butler and Bam Adebayo-with 11 points on just 5-for-15 shooting-had double-figure points for the Heat. Over the next two periods, Butler himself settled down and at points looked exhausted as Giannis, Lopez, and the Bucks wrested away control. JIMMY BUTLER ON GIANNIS /Gx5j1aIt11- Bleacher Report April 24, 2023īut the Bucks still led after 12 minutes because nobody else on the Heat could find a rhythm. The six-time All-Star has done it all through four games in these playoffs: He has scored over Jrue Holiday, around Lopez, and through Antetokounmpo he’s made confident shots from deep, in the midrange, and at the rim he’s gotten to the line seemingly at will.

Yet evidently, not everything pointed in Milwaukee’s direction, because Jimmy Butler plays for the Heat, and nobody has produced at a more consistently spectacular level this postseason than Butler, who’s made a habit of exploding every spring. At the halfway mark in the final period, Milwaukee led 101-89, thanks to a strong two-way game from Brook Lopez and a triple-double from Giannis-who enjoyed perhaps the most sophisticated passing game of his career.

Indeed, the Bucks controlled nearly all of the game, grabbing the lead early and maintaining a seemingly comfortable margin for the next three and a half quarters. Sure, the Bucks trailed 2-1 against the eighth-seeded Heat, but with Giannis back, they were poised to regain home-court advantage and get their title hopes back on track.
JIMMY BUTLER STATS VS BUCKS SERIES
1 seed, they entered the postseason as championship favorites and most of all, on Monday night, they welcomed back Giannis Antetokounmpo, who’d missed all but 11 minutes of the series due to a back injury suffered early in Game 1. They had the NBA’s best regular-season record with the no. Everything pointed in the Bucks’ direction. The Milwaukee Bucks should have won Game 4 against the Miami Heat. In the span of half a quarter in Miami on Monday night-half an incandescent, stupendous, mind-boggling quarter-the entire 2022-23 NBA title landscape may have shifted.
