Khris Middleton on Saturday nailed a clutch two-pointer with less than one second remaining as the Milwaukee Bucks snatched a thrilling 109-107 overtime victory against the Miami Heat in their NBA Eastern Conference playoff opener.
Middleton kept his composure superbly to drain the decisive jump shot from 5.5m with just 0.5 seconds on the clock, handing the Bucks a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven first round series.
In other series openers, the Brooklyn Nets rallied from a 12-point second-quarter deficit to beat the Boston Celtics 104-93.
Photo: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY
In the West, the fifth seeded Dallas Mavericks rallied late in the fourth quarter to down the fourth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers 113-103 at the Staples Center, while Damian Lillard scored 34 points to power the Portland Trail Blazers to a 123-109 win over the Denver Nuggets in the opener series.
Middleton’s dramatic winner marked the final act of a pulsating battle between the two Eastern Conference rivals, who also met in last year’s playoffs with the Heat winning that series 4-1.
Heat talisman Jimmy Butler had taken the game to overtime at the end of the fourth quarter, driving to the basket to make it 99-99 as time ran out at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum.
Middleton’s late winner settled the game in overtime and gives the Bucks the chance to take a grip on the series with game two at home today.
Middleton led the Bucks scorers with 27 points, six rebounds and six assists, with Giannis Antetokounmpo, who appeared to be struggling with a sore left arm, adding 26 points with 18 rebounds and five assists.
In Brooklyn, Kevin Durant scored a game-high 32 points and pulled down 12 rebounds to lead the Nets, who had 29 points from Kyrie Irving and 21 from James Harden.
It was just the ninth time all season that the Nets’ “Big Three” played together, and Durant said it took them awhile to settle in before a crowd of 14,391 at the Barclays Center.
“Most of it was settling down,” he said of the Nets’ struggles in the first half, in which they made just one of 13 from three-point range. “I think we rushed a lot of shots early. Our fans were in the stands for the first time at this capacity. I think there was a lot of adrenalin out there.”
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