For the second straight game, Jimmy Butler dragged the Miami Heat back from a double-digit fourth quarter deficit against the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks. After a stunning 56-point performance in Game 4 to lift Miami to a 3-1 series lead, Butler was at it again in Game 5 scoring 42 points on the night, including 14 in the fourth quarter.
Butler was simply unstoppable for the fifth straight game, drilling contested jumper after contested jumper, while telling Jrue Holiday all about it after each one. His three with just over two minutes to go tied the game at 111, and from there it was a sloppy fight to the finish for both sides.
Butler got some help from hot shooting by Kevin Love (5-of-11 from three) and Gabe Vincent (4-of-11 from three), who hit a critical bucket with 8.4 seconds to play to cut the lead to one after a couple rare misses from Butler allowed Milwaukee to push the lead out to four at the foul line.
From there it was chaos, with the Bucks trying to throw the ball away, Kyle Lowry getting called for a phantom foul, and the referees eventually overturning the call upon review. On the jump ball, the Bucks again tried to throw the ball away, with Khris Middleton saving it to Holiday to prevent a total catastrophe, sending Holiday to the line with just over two seconds to play.
Holiday could only split the foul shots, giving Miami a chance to tie the game or win it outright, and everyone knew who the ball was going to. Even so, Butler was able to get free at the basket for an unbelievable finish off a lob, as he threw it up at the rim while parallel to the ground, falling to his back as the ball went through to tie the game.
The Bucks, for some reason, didn’t call their last timeout with half a second on the clock to try and get a look at a game-winner, resulting in overtime in Milwaukee. With the Bucks clearly shaken, Butler and the Heat quickly jumped out to a seven-point advantage, as his outrageous shot-making display continued.
The Bucks would make a run to cut the deficit to as few as two with under 10 seconds to play, but they could not even get a shot off before the buzzer as Grayson Allen dribbled out the clock without realizing the situation to give Miami a 128-126 win and a stunning 4-1 series victory.
Given the Bucks’ pedigree, it’s truly stunning to watch them meltdown like this in back-to-back games, and one can’t help but think this kind of embarrassment in the first round will likely lead to some significant changes in Milwaukee. For the Heat, they now set up a showdown with the Knicks in the second round that will have 90s NBA fans sweating, with Butler currently playing like the best player in the entire NBA.
