Miami (0-1) at Milwaukee (1-0)
When: Monday, May 24th, 2021
Where: Fiserv Forum,
Milwaukee, WI
Time: 7:30 ET | TV: TNT
Opening Odds: Milwaukee -4/221.5
The Milwaukee Bucks got more than they bargained for in Saturday’s Game 1 thriller against the Miami Heat in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs. The Bucks will look for a better shooting effort on Monday when they host Game 2 at Fiserv Forum, looking to go up 2-0 in the series. Khris Middleton’s game-winning shot with half a second remaining in overtime lifted the Bucks to a 109-107 victory Saturday. The Bucks were a terrific 3-point shooting team during the regular season, but kept the Heat in the game by going just 5-for-31 from long range in Game 1, but dominated in the paint 56-24. The Heat, meanwhile, made a postseason franchise-record 20 three-pointers on 50 attempts. The Heat shot 16-for-49 (32.7 percent) on the rest of their shots, and star Jimmy Butler struggled to 4-for-22 shooting.
Miami ended up covering the closing 3.5-point spread in Saturday’s game, making them 8-2 ATS in their L10 games overall. The Bucks have been on an opposite cover run. Although Milwaukee has won 8 of their last 10 games, they have just a 3-7 ATS mark during that stretch. The home team has won three of the four meetings this season and the past three have gone under the total.
Goran Dragic had one of his better games of the season with 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting off the bench including give three-pointers. Butler (10), Trevor Ariza (12) and Bam Adebayo (12) all had double-digits in rebounds with Butler coming just two assists shy of a triple-double. Tyler Hero scored 10 points off the bench but was just 2-of-10 from the floor.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was just 10-of-27 from the field but still ended up with 26 points, 18 rebounds and five assists. Antetokounmpo said after the game his left elbow felt fine even though he shot 6-for-13 from the free throw line and made only one shot after taking a hit from Adebayo with 5:30 remaining in regulation. The starters did most of the scoring for Milwaukee on Saturday, scoring 94 of the 109 points. Jrue Holiday had 20 points but missed all five of this three-point attempts.
The Bucks did not play very well on Saturday and still managed to win the game. They will pick up their outside shooting and continue to dominate inside. I’m looking for the Bucks to win this easily against a Heat team that has been inconsistent all season long.
Check out who Bobby Babowski has on his Free NBA Picks page for today.
Pick: Bucks -4.5
