Jude Magnotti ‘26
EE Sports Columnist
I am shocked that the Milwaukee Bucks– yes the Milwaukee Bucks with the best record, the best defense, and the best player in the NBA– have lost to the 8th seeded Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs.
After coming in as massive favorites to win the championship, the Bucks melted down in only 5 games to Miami and Jimmy Butler. How could the clear favorites be taken down by the worst playoff team in only 5 games?
Well before we digest what happened here, we need to understand the historical significance of this event. In NBA history, the 8th seed had only beat the 1 seed 4 times! This means that coming into this season, the Heat only had a 5.3% chance of making it to the second round.
The other times that this has happened were in 1994 where Dikembe Mutumbo and the Nuggets beat the Sonics; the 1999 Knicks led by Patrick Ewing who beat (ironically) the Heat and are still the only 8th seed to ever make the NBA finals; the 2011 “Grit N Grind” Grizzlies who upset the Spurs; and in 2012 where the Sixers defeated the Bulls after a terrible knee injury to Derrick Rose.
However, what is different about this scenario is that all these series finished in seven. The Heat were so good that they beat the 1 seed in 5! Now, how can this be? The Bucks were clearly the best team in the league with plenty of playoff experience and not to mention the “Greek Freak” Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Well, there are several factors that turned this season in the Heats’ favor: one is just luck. The age old excuse for upsets, it is possible of course that the Bucks just weren’t on their game while the Heat were.
However, I believe that there are more specific factors that contributed to Milwaukee’s downfall. Obviously, there was the injury to Giannis. The former league MVP hurt his back only 8 minutes into game 1 and was out for the rest of games 1, 2, and 3. In those games, the Bucks went 1-2.
When Giannis was finally cleared to return, everyone expected it to be business as usual and that the Bucks would easily come back and continue their path to the finals. Unfortunately for them, what actually happened couldn’t have been more different. Jimmy Butler turned into Michael Jordan and dropped 56 points and a game winner to spoil Giannis’s return. All of a sudden, the Bucks are down 3-1 and people are getting scared.
Coming back from 3-1 is almost as rare as an 8 beating a 1 seed, but people still thought that the Bucks could come back. Unfortunately for Bucks fans, they were once again let down. In an absolute overtime thriller, the Heat beat the Bucks by 2 in overtime after late game miscommunication.
Giannis had 38 points and 20 rebounds but cost his team the win with multiple game-losing mistakes. He only shot 41% from the line on nearly 30 attempts. If he even makes 60% of those the Bucks win easily.
Because of his inability to shoot, Giannis was extremely scared of getting fouled at the end of the game. This caused him to recklessly throw the ball out of bounds and turn the ball over to Miami with the Bucks ahead. The game went to overtime on a crazy shot by Jimmy Butler and before anyone knew what happened the Bucks were out of the playoffs.
Giannis, clearly frustrated with himself, lashed out on a reporter in a post-game interview. After being asked whether or not he believed the season was a failure, Giannis went on a 5-minute rant about this being a learning experience. While he is right in this regard, there is still no doubt in my mind that this season was a failure for the Bucks.
If they had lost in the second round to a good team then I could forgive them. However, the fact that they lost in the first round, to the 8th seed, in 5 games, is unacceptable!
Coming into the playoffs, I believed that Giannis was the best player in the world, but after that series I’m really not sure anymore. I do know one thing though, and it is that Giannis will come back from this. He has dealt with adversity his entire life as well as his NBA career and there is no doubt in my mind that he will come back even stronger next season.
Giannis is still only 28 years old and has plenty of time to recover from this debacle. If he is going to, though, he will need to fix one thing: his free throw percentage. As we saw in game 5, Giannis’ missed throws cost the Bucks the game. It has been the only weakness in Antetokounmpo’s game his entire career and if he could even get his percentage up to the mid seventies he would become truly unstoppable.
Giannis’ injury and play aside though, there was still one major thing that we underestimated coming into this series: Playoff Jimmy. Jimmy Butler is notoriously one of the most competitive players in the NBA. His almost psychotic obsession to win has led to massive brawls and heated arguments with his coaches and teammates. However, it has also led to some of the most legendary playoff moments ever.
Last year Butler dropped three separate 50 point games in the Eastern conference finals alone. His 56 points that sealed a game 4 Heat win against the Bucks is tied for 4th most ever in a single playoff game. He has consistently been one of the best playoff performers in recent years. The only thing missing? A championship.
For one reason or another, Butler has never been able to complete a full run to the finals. Whether it was with the Sixers, Bulls, or most recently his 2020 finals run with the Heat. However, after this series upset, Miami has immense momentum in favor of themselves. If they could beat the Bucks in 5, who’s to say that they couldn’t upset other power houses like the Celtics or sixers?
Could this upset be the start of the most miraculous playoff run in sports history? Or was it simply a fluke that will never be done again? Either way one thing is for certain and it’s that the Milwaulke Bucks collapse just fueled the fire to Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heats flame.