MIAMI- The possible 2nd round match up and the playoff preview looks good for the Miami Heat as they shutdown Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks for the second time this season, 105-89.
It was a collective effort for the Heat to take down the NBA's best team as six heat players finished with double figures while they contain Giannis in transition offense making him scoreless in the area resulting to the lowest point production of the "Greek Freak" this season with only 13 points.
Heat All-Star Bam Adebayo led the containment of Giannis who only allowed Giannis to score once when he was the primary defender and contested seven of Greek Freak's shots resulted to misses and even with Adebayo at the bench the Heat continues to swarm Giannis to avoid waking up his offensive mode.
With Giannis and Brook Lopez guarding the paint, the Miami Heat struggled early in the game to score in the shaded area but with the heat's second unit hitting triples courtesy of Kelly Olynyk who forced Brook Lopez to guard him outside to give Bam Adebayo some room to operate under the basket and Jae Crowder who hit multiple triples to end the Bucks' run resulting to a 30 point production for the Heat bench in the first half with 28 of them coming from beyond the arc as they lead a point at the end of the first half, 53-52.
While Giannis grabbed some of his 13 points out of offensive rebounds (15 rebounds the whole game), The heat extended their lead with Jimmy Butler slicing the Bucks' defense launching floaters and dropping dimes to Co-All Star Bam Adebayo who scored14 points and grabber 13 rebounds while Goran Dragic took charge of continuing the hot shooting display in the outside as he ended the third frame with buzzer-beating triple, pushing the lead to 11.
Down by 11, George Hill sets Brook Lopez to muscle his way to the rim to give Bucks' some life but the Heat answered every attack they have launched to keep the lead and the game in their control and with 4:33 remaining in the clock Hill took a knee in the midsection putting him down for the rest of the game as the Heat grabbed their second win against the Bucks.
The Heat outplayed the bucks in the rainbow territory with 48.6% 3point Field Goal percentage while the bucks struggles hitting only 20% in the arc.
Despite the 21 points of Brook Lopez, the Bucks failed to continue their win streak as the heat displayed a well-balanced performance in both ends of the floor as they pushed the Bucks to commit five more turnovers.
The heat deep bench led by Goran Dragic who dropped 15 points and 4 assists are considered one of the deepest bench the NBA has seen with the current addition of 3-time NBA champion and 2015 Finals' MVP Andre Iguodala alongside with Jae Crowder who tallied 18 points and 4 rebounds and Kelly Olynyk who developed his outside shooting.
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