Milwaukee and Memphis, same fight and same victory. Like the Grizzlies, deprived of Ja Morant, against the Lakers, the Bucks had to win Game 2 against Miami, in order to equalize, without their best player, Giannis Antetokounmpo in this case.
Not the easiest of missions, but the 2021 champions were up for the challenge, as explained by Jrue Holiday.
“I told him this Wednesday morning that I knew he wanted to come back, but if he didn’t, we were going to have his back,” tells the playmaker at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “Our team has confidence in everyone and we know Giannis, we know that he will try, that he will make a superhuman effort to come back and play 48 minutes. But we can hold on without him, waiting for his return. »
The Bucks more than held out in that second set. They exploded the Heat with 138 points and a superb 25/49 at 3-pts (51% success). Either a new franchise record in the playoffs behind the arc.
“We think we have the best player in the world, but we have the best players around him, the best team”says Khris Middleton for ESPN. “We are lucky to have a dense team, with several players who can take it up a notch”, adds Brook Lopez. “Everyone is ready, has the right mentality. »
“We were hot. There was a sequence where everything seemed to fall into it”
In detail, this gives 25 points for Brook Lopez, 24 and 11 assists for Jrue Holiday, or 13 points and 15 rebounds for Bobby Portis, who took the place of double MVP. Without forgetting Pat Connaughton, who did not play in Game 1, 22 points, or Joe Ingles and Grayson Allen, 17 and 16.
“We were hot. There was a sequence where everything seemed to fall into it”, likes Grayson Allen. “It’s largely thanks to our stops that we were able to run. We were able to score award-winning baskets in transition. The ball circulation was excellent. »
Milwaukee was thus able to equalize and avoid a very complicated situation, which would have been to go to Miami with a 2-0 to go.
“I think we realized that we hadn’t played our best match,” notes Brook Lopez when referring to Game 1. “We weren’t soft, but we wanted to start this Game 2 with the right energy. We could make ourselves felt more. We were much better in this match. »
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | 63 | 32.1 | 55.3 | 27.5 | 64.5 | 2.2 | 9.6 | 11.8 | 5.7 | 3.9 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 3.1 | 31.1 |
| Jrue Holiday | 67 | 32.6 | 47.9 | 38.4 | 85.9 | 1.2 | 3.9 | 5.1 | 7.4 | 2.9 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 1.7 | 19.3 |
| Brook Lopez | 78 | 30.4 | 53.1 | 37.4 | 78.4 | 2.0 | 4.7 | 6.7 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 2.6 | 15.9 |
| Khris Middleton | 33 | 24.3 | 43.6 | 31.5 | 90.2 | 0.8 | 3.4 | 4.2 | 4.9 | 2.2 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 2.1 | 15.1 |
| Bobby Portis | 70 | 26.0 | 49.6 | 37.0 | 76.8 | 2.2 | 7.4 | 9.6 | 1.5 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 14.1 |
| Grayson Allen | 72 | 27.4 | 44.0 | 39.9 | 90.5 | 0.8 | 2.4 | 3.3 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 10.4 |
| Jevon Carter | 81 | 22.4 | 42.3 | 42.1 | 81.6 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 2.4 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 2.0 | 8.0 |
| Pat Connaughton | 61 | 23.7 | 39.2 | 33.9 | 65.9 | 0.8 | 3.8 | 4.6 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 7.6 |
| Lindell Wigginton | 7 | 12.4 | 48.6 | 33.3 | 88.9 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 1.7 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 7.1 |
| Joe Ingles | 46 | 22.7 | 43.5 | 40.9 | 85.7 | 0.3 | 2.5 | 2.8 | 3.3 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 1.6 | 6.9 |
| Jae Crowder | 18 | 18.9 | 47.9 | 43.6 | 83.3 | 0.9 | 2.9 | 3.8 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 6.9 |
| Jordan Nwora | 38 | 15.7 | 38.6 | 39.2 | 86.0 | 0.8 | 2.3 | 3.1 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 6.0 |
| Goran Dragic | 7 | 11.8 | 38.9 | 41.2 | 100.0 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 5.6 |
| Marjon Beauchamp | 52 | 13.5 | 39.5 | 33.1 | 73.0 | 0.7 | 1.5 | 2.2 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 5.1 |
| george hill | 35 | 19.1 | 44.7 | 31.1 | 73.9 | 0.4 | 1.5 | 1.9 | 2.5 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 5.0 |
| Leonard Meyers | 9 | 12.6 | 48.3 | 38.9 | 88.9 | 1.3 | 2.4 | 3.8 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 1.8 | 4.8 |
| Aj Green | 35 | 9.9 | 42.4 | 41.9 | 100.0 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 4.4 |
| Serge Ibaka | 16 | 11.6 | 48.1 | 33.3 | 61.5 | 0.9 | 1.8 | 2.8 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 4.1 |
| Wesley Matthews | 52 | 15.8 | 36.3 | 31.5 | 85.7 | 0.7 | 1.5 | 2.2 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 3.4 |
| Sandro Mamukelashvili | 24 | 9.1 | 32.8 | 21.9 | 66.7 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 2.3 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 2.4 |
| Thanasis Antetokounmpo | 37 | 5.6 | 43.5 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 1.4 |
