Bucks One Win Away From NBA Title

If the Milwaukee Bucks were to win their first NBA championship in 50 years, they would have to win at least one game on the road. The Phoenix Suns have home court advantage; they won Games 1 and 2 while the Bucks won Games 3 and 4 in Milwaukee. Game 5 in Phoenix was crucial to both teams; Milwaukee didn’t want to trade home court victories and then have to win Game 7 in Phoenix (although the Bucks did win Game 7 in their Eastern Conference Final in Brooklyn) while the Suns didn’t want to fall behind 3-2 and then face elimination in Milwaukee.

Game 5 began with Phoenix taking a big lead—the Suns led by 16 at the end of the first quarter—but Milwaukee turned that around in the second quarter, outscoring Phoenix 43-24 to take a 64-61 lead at halftime. Phoenix trailed by 10 with less than four minutes to play, and mounted a comeback, pulling to within one point at 120-119 with 56 seconds to go. The Suns’ Devin Booker had the ball with 16 seconds left when Milwaukee’s Jrue Holiday ripped it away from him, dribbled down court, and made a perfect ally oop pass to Giannis Antetokounmpo for a slam dunk. Milwaukee went on to win 123-119.

Giannis led the Bucks with 32 points, Khris Middleton scored 29, and Holiday had 27 with 13 assists and three steals, none more important than the last one.

Game 6 is in Milwaukee July 20th, while Game 7, if necessary, will be in Phoenix on July 23rd.