MILWAUKEE — Jimmy Butler scored 42 points and the Miami Heat staged a second straight stunning fourth-quarter rally before winning 128-126 in overtime on Wednesday night in Game 5 to complete an upset of the top-seeded Bucks in their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.
Two nights after outscoring the Bucks 30-13 in the final six minutes of a 119-115 victory in Miami, the Heat produced another huge comeback and tied the game on Butler’s layup with half a second left in regulation.
Miami went on to become the sixth No. 8 seed to beat a No. 1 seed. The last time it happened was in 2012, when a Philadelphia 76ers team featuring current Bucks guard Jrue Holiday capitalized on Derrick Rose’s knee injury to beat the top-seeded Chicago Bulls.
The Heat advanced to a second-round series with the fifth-seeded New York Knicks, who completed their 4-1 series win over the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier Wednesday. Game 1 is Sunday in New York.
“Because we’ve been in so many of these close games in the fourth quarter, our guys take pride — a lot of pride — in our mental toughness and physical toughness going down the stretch, particularly in close games,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We had to show that. We had to show that in all four of the wins.”
Bam Adebayo put the Heat ahead for good by dunking in a putback of Butler’s missed driving layup attempt with 4:44 left in overtime. The Bucks trailed 128-126 and had the ball in the closing seconds, but the clock ran out before Grayson Allen could take a shot as he drove to the basket.
Adebayo had 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Gabe Vincent added 22 points.
Giannis Antetokounmpo had 38 points and 20 rebounds for the Bucks, though he shot just 10 of 23 on free-throw attempts. Khris Middleton added 33 points.
Milwaukee led 102-86 after three quarters but shot just 5 of 25 from the floor in the fourth quarter and overtime.
The Heat tied the game on two occasions late in the fourth quarter before Middleton made two free throws to put Milwaukee back ahead with 27.8 seconds left.
Then things really got interesting.
After calling a timeout, the Heat got the ball to Butler, whose 3-point attempt missed with 18 seconds left. Holiday made two free throws with 14 seconds remaining to make it a four-point game, but Vincent’s 3-pointer cut the lead to one with 8.4 seconds left.
The Bucks had the ball in the backcourt when Holiday threw an errant pass that eluded Middleton. Miami’s Kyle Lowry initially was called for a foul as he chased the loose ball, but the Heat successfully challenged the call and it was ruled a jump ball.
Brook Lopez tipped the ball to Antetokounmpo, whose pass nearly went out of bounds before Middleton saved it to Holiday. After getting fouled with 2.1 seconds left, Holiday missed his first free throw before sinking the second to make it 118-116.
After the Heat called timeout, Vincent stood in front of the Bucks bench and threw an inbounds pass to Butler, who was waiting under the basket to make the tying score.
“Just get the ball to Jimmy,” Vincent said. “The game plan was simple: Get the ball to Buckets and let him do what he do,” Vincent said. “Max set a great screen, Jimmy created some space and went up and got it.”
TIP-INS
Heat: Udonis Haslem picked up a technical foul from the Heat bench after exchanging words with Milwaukee’s Bobby Portis during a second-quarter timeout. … Erik Spoelstra earned his 100th career playoff coaching victory. The 100th win enabled him to tie Larry Brown for fifth place on the all-time list Spoelstra’s 99 wins put him in a tie for sixth with Red Auerbach. … The Heat improved to 3-1 in postseason series against the Bucks. The Heat won first-round series in 2013 and 2020 and lost a first-round series in 2021.
Bucks: Wesley Matthews returned to action for the first time since straining his right calf in Game 1. “Tough is probably a gross understatement,” Matthews said after a Wednesday morning shootaround as he discussed the pain of missing three playoff games. … The Bucks went out in the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 2018, when they lost in seven games to Boston as a No. 7 seed.
