Hell, why should the college kids get to have all the fun? How about some pro-style March Madness, courtesy of Khris Middleton?
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The Milwaukee Bucks entered Tuesday on a six-game losing streak that's dropped them below .500 and into a somewhat precarious position, as several other teams below them in the Eastern Conference standings start to show signs of life in pursuit of their own postseason spot. One of those teams, the Miami Heat, came calling at the BMO Harris Bradley Center, with designs on drawing within a mere half-game of the Bucks' No. 6 spot. It took a hellacious fourth-quarter comeback, but Jason Kidd's club was able to fend off their visitors, thanks to one remarkable bit of late-game shotmaking from a dude who'd gone 4-for-16 through the first 47-plus minutes of regulation.
But we've gotten ahead of ourselves. Let's reset.
With 10.8 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and Miami clinging to an 88-86 lead — all that remained of the 16-point advantage Erik Spoelstra's team held early in the fourth, before the Bucks clamped down defensively — Heat forward Michael Beasley and Bucks guard Jerryd Bayless stood at the Milwaukee free-throw line, ready to contest a jump ball. Despite giving up a solid six inches to Beasley, Bayless came away with the ball, tapping it back to Middleton behind the arc. He kicked it right back to Bayless, who knifed through the paint against Beasley and scooped up a game-tying layup ... that came up empty.
But all was not lost! After the rebound was tapped out of the paint, Milwaukee center Zaza Pachulia raced to the corner to knock the loose ball away from Heat guard Goran Dragic, save it and chuck it back toward half-court as he fell out of bounds along the Bucks baseline. Pachulia's save landed smack dab in Middleton's shooting pocket with nine-tenths of a second left in the game. Plenty of time. Snap the wrist, watch the splash, feel the rain on your skin, let the cheers and the teammates wash over you.
After spending the night mostly swarmed by Heat defenders, Middleton was nails when it counted, drilling a buzzer-beating, game-winning 3-pointer — for the second time this season — to complete a 16-point fourth-quarter comeback and score an 89-88 victory that ended the Bucks' half-dozen-game skid.
After the game, FOX Sports Wisconsin's Telly Hughes asked Middleton to take him through the final possession. Middleton did about as well as you could have asked for, mere seconds removed from the insanity.
"Man, JB got a good look to the basket," said Middleton, who finished with 13 points on 5-for-17 shooting, four rebounds and two assists in the win. "They tipped it out. Z got a hand on it, just trying to make another play [...] I just tried to shoot it with time left."
And he did, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat on a night where the Bucks could have packed it in after falling behind 81-65 on a Dragic layup with 9:53 left in the fourth.
To that point, the Heat had largely imposed their will on the home team, weathering the loss of center Hassan Whiteside to a lacerated right hand in the first half that required 10 stitches and was numb after the game behind strong play from the star backcourt of Dragic and Wade, plus some off-the-bench punch from reserves Mario Chalmers and Henry Walker. From there, though, Milwaukee began walking Miami down.
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A pair of buckets by Giannis Antetokounmpo cut the deficit to a dozen; a Pachulia steal and subsequent Bayless finish got it down to 10. From there, the defense started to pick up, as a big late-game Bucks lineup featuring Ersan Ilyasova up front alongside Pachulia and Antetokounmpo with Bayless and Middleton in the backcourt made life miserable on Miami, contesting the Heat into 1-for-7 shooting over the final 6 1/2 minutes while forcing four Heat turnovers that turned into 11 Bucks points.
"We just kept fighting," Middleton said after the game. "We knew we needed this one bad, especially with Miami right behind us. We got down late, but we didn't give up. We kept fighting."
Fueled by turnovers, hustle and a couple of big 3s, the Bucks ripped off a 14-0 run in the space of five minutes, capped by a shuffling-and-sliding Pachulia scoop layup that tied the game at 85 with 1:20 to go. They snuffed out the ensuing Miami possession, too, and forced a scramble for the ball, but Wade came up with it and hit a layup that ended Miami's drought with 1:03 remaining.
Wade had a chance to give Miami a two-possession lead with 17 seconds left, but he split a pair of free throws that kept the Heat lead at 88-85. A scant five seconds later, Ilyasova had a chance to cut the lead to one, but he split his pair, with Beasley rebounding the missed second freebie before a hard-charging and quick-thinking Bayless tied him up to force the jump ball that wound up leading to one of the more ridiculous endings we've seen this season.
Amazing hustle needed just to set up the shot. Bayless forces jumpball + wins tip vs. bigger guy, then Zaza with incredible save to Khash.
— Frank Madden (@brewhoop) March 25, 2015 Ilyasova led five Bucks in double-figures with 19 points on 7-for-15 shooting to go with 11 rebounds, three blocks, two assists and one steal in 28 1/2 minutes of work. He was one of three Bucks to post double-doubles, too, joined by Antetokounmpo (16 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks, two assists) and Pachulia (14 points and 11 rebounds, plus a team-high seven assists and five steals). Milwaukee improves to 35-36 with the win, giving them a 2 1/2-game cushion over seventh-seeded Miami ... and, more importantly, securing a 4-0 season-series sweep over the Heat, should playoff positioning wind up coming down to a head-to-head tiebreaker.
Wade had 21 points on 7-for-14 shooting with four assists, three steals and two rebounds to lead the Heat, who fell 32-38 after scoring just nine points as a team in the fourth quarter. Miami's lead over the eighth-seeded Boston Celtics is now just one game; as luck would have it, the Heat travel to Boston to face Brad Stevens' Celts on Wednesday.
Spo on tomorrow’s game vs the Celtics: “We’ve shown with this group we can bounce back after tough losses.”
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) March 25, 2015 They'll need to, since you'd expect the numb-handed Whiteside to be at least limited and perhaps entirely unavailable, leaving Miami awfully small up front — Beasley, Chris Andersen, Udonis Haslem and Luol Deng would be the only healthy Heat players measuring 6-foot-8 or taller — against a Celtics frontcourt featuring the likes of Tyler Zeller, Kelly Olynyk, Brandon Bass and Jonas Jerebko. The impetus will be on Wade and Dragic to carry the day if the Heat are to stem the tide; it ought to be lots of fun to see them lock horns with Boston's bulldog backcourt of Avery Bradley and Marcus Smart.
The Bucks' next test comes Thursday, when they take on an Indiana Pacers club that's riding a six-game losing streak of its own and will be desperate to try to use the Bucks as a stepping stool back into the playoff picture. A determined and focused Indy side could give Milwaukee problems — one bonkers last-second win doesn't necessarily mean an end to the struggleball the Bucks have been playing for the past month — but there's no need to dwell on the possibilities of a dire near-future when you can instead live wholly in a moment of pitch-perfect absurdity.
"The Milwaukee Bucks didn’t play very well on Tuesday night," wrote Jeremy Schmidt of Bucksketball. "But — for now — who cares?"
Not a blessed soul in Milwaukee, we'd wager, and hardly any in Miami, either.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
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