MILWAUKEE — The Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks both lost important players in the opening game of their first-round series. But it was the Heat that escaped Game 1 with an impressive win to send a statement to the heavily favored Bucks.
Heat starting guard Tyler Herro broke his right hand late in the first half of Game 1 and never returned. Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo left Game 1 in the second quarter because of a lower back contusion and didn’t return.
Through it all, the Eastern Conference’s eighth-seeded Heat came away with an eye-opening 130-117 victory over the top-seeded Bucks on Sunday at Fiserv Forum to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
Heat star Jimmy Butler was the catalyst behind it all, finishing with 35 points, five rebounds, 11 assists and three steals in 43 minutes.
After the Bucks cut the Heat’s 14-point lead to just three with 5:14 left in the third quarter, the Heat responded with a 24-13 run to enter the fourth quarter ahead by 14.
The Heat extended that lead to as many as 15 in the fourth quarter. The closest Milwaukee got to Miami in the final period was eight points, as the Heat never allowed the Bucks to make a big run down the stretch.
Along with Butler’s excellent performance, the Heat also shot a season-best 15-of-25 (60 percent) from three-point range to outscore the Bucks 45-33 from beyond the arc. Milwaukee shot just 11 of 45 (24.4 percent) on threes.
Heat center Bam Adebayo contributed 22 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and two steals.
Veteran forward Kevin Love added 18 points and eight rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench in arguably his best game since joining the Heat in mid-February after agreeing to a buyout with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Bucks star forward Khris Middleton scored an efficient 33 points on 20 field-goal attempts. Bobby Portis finished with 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field off Milwaukee’s bench.
But the rest of the Bucks’ roster combined to shoot just 42.9 percent from the field.
The Heat controlled the game from start to finish, as the Bucks’ biggest lead of the game was two and it came in the opening minute of the contest.
Aside from Herro’s injury, the first half went about as well as the Heat could have hoped for.
The Heat entered halftime with a 13-point lead behind 24 first-half points from Butler. The Heat shot an efficient 8 of 14 (57.1 percent) from three-point range while the Bucks shot just 4 of 21 (19 percent) from beyond the arc in the first two quarters.
Game 2 of the series is Wednesday at Fiserv Forum (9 p.m., NBA TV and Bally Sports Sun).
Five takeaways from the Heat’s Game 1 win over the Bucks on Sunday:
Playoff Jimmy led the Heat in Game 1.
The Heat’s best player was aggressive from the start. Butler totaled 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field in the first quarter on his way to scoring 24 points on 11-of-17 shooting from the field in the first half.
Those 17 shots are the most that Butler has ever taken in a first half during his NBA career.
With the Bucks’ defense loading up on Butler in the second half, he adjusted to dish out seven of his 11 assists in the second half. He also scored 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting from the field in the final two quarters.
Butler ended the night with 35 points on 15-of-27 shooting from the field and 5-of-8 shooting from the foul line, five rebounds, 11 assists and three steals in 43 minutes.
Sunday marked the 13th time that Butler has scored 30 or more points in a playoff game as a member of the Heat.
The Heat took a serious blow when Herro broke his right hand late in the first half of Game 1.
Herro suffered the injury while diving for a loose ball in the final minute of the second quarter. Herro immediately attempted to head to the locker room, but remained on the court for the final seconds of the second quarter until the halftime buzzer sounded.
At halftime, the Heat announced that Herro broke his right hand. A broken hand takes weeks to heal, which means his availability for the rest of playoffs is now in serious doubt.
Herro recorded 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 shooting from three-point range in 19 first-half minutes before leaving the game.
The Heat opened the second half with Duncan Robinson in Herro’s starting spot.
Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo injury
While going up for a layup, Antetokounmpo came down hard on his back after crashing into Heat forward Kevin Love with 4:13 left in the first quarter. The foul was called on Love, but Antetokounmpo was slow to get up and immediately reached for his back.
Antetokounmpo remained in the game and made one of the two free throws, but left with 1:46 remaining in the opening period and immediately went back to the locker room.
Antetokounmpo re-entered the game with 9:56 left in the second quarter but quickly left the court again less than two minutes later, running straight to the locker room with 8:33 remaining in the quarter.
Antetokounmpo never returned, as he was ruled out for the rest of the game because of a lower back contusion.
In his limited time on the court in Game 1, Antetokounmpo recorded six points on 2-of-4 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 shooting from the foul line and three rebounds in 11 minutes.
Antetokounmpo will now have two days to recover before Game 2 on Wednesday, but there’s now uncertainty surrounding his status for the rest the series. If Antetokounmpo can’t play or is slowed because of the injury for the rest of the series, the Heat’s chances of winning the series suddenly increase dramatically.
The Bucks outscored opponents by 7.2 points per 100 possessions with Antetokounmpo on the court this regular season. With Antetokounmpo off the court, opponents outscored the Bucks by 1.4 points per 100 possessions.
Antetokounmpo has only played one full game against the Heat this season. He missed two of the four regular-season matchups because of left knee soreness and left another after just six minutes of action because of a knee injury.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra decided to stick with the same small starting lineup in Game 1 even against the Bucks’ towering starting frontcourt of Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez.
The Heat opened with its new normal starting lineup of Gabe Vincent, Tyler Herro, Jimmy Butler, Max Strus and Bam Adebayo.
It marked just the sixth time this group has started a game together this season, with the Heat only recently turning to this group consistently. Miami replaced Kevin Love in the starting lineup with Strus with just four games left in the regular season after Love started in his first 17 appearances with the Heat.
The issue is the tallest player in the Heat’s new starting lineup, Adebayo, is listed at 6-foot-9. The second tallest is the 6-foot-7 Butler, and Herro and Strus are tied for third tallest at 6-foot-5.
So the Heat began the game with Adebayo defending the 7-foot Antetokounmpo and Strus defending the 7-foot-1 Lopez, who has taken nearly half of his shots this season from three-point range.
While unorthodox, the Heat’s strategy proved to be relatively effective.
The Heat’s starters opened the game on an 11-7 run before Spoelstra made his first substitution of the game.
With Antetokounmpo’s injury forcing him out of the game midway through the first half, the Heat didn’t need to deal with the Antetokounmpo-Lopez frontcourt in the second half. The Bucks opened the third quarter with a small lineup that included guard Jevon Carter in Antetokounmpo’s place.
Kevin Love delivered a big performance off the bench in his first playoff game with the Heat.
Love finished with 18 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field, 4-of-7 shooting from three-point range and 4-of-4 shooting from the foul line in 23 minutes.
The Heat used four reserves in Game 1: Caleb Martin, Kyle Lowry, Love and Duncan Robinson.
Robinson only entered to play in the second half after Herro went out with a broken right hand. Robinson played six minutes, making his only three-point attempt of the game in the final seconds of the third quarter.
Victor Oladipo, Cody Zeller, Haywood Highsmith and Omer Yurtseven remained out of the Heat’s rotation.
