NBA Preview: Miami Heat vs Milwaukee Bucks
Last time when the two teams met earlier this week at the South Florida, the tenacious Milwaukee Bucks gave the Miami heat a run for their money and it took the brilliance of the Big Three down the stretch to finally pull off the
win.
On Friday night, at the Bradley Centre, Miami Heat can be in for another tough fight as they face off against Scott Skiles team.
Miami though have been ruling the roast on the road, off late. Heading into Friday’s match, Heat have won 11 away games on a trot. If the men from the South Beach manage to sweep the five game road trip, that goes underway with
a stint at Milwaukee on Friday, they'll tie the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers for the longest road winning streak in league history at 16.
The Heat have an important feat to accomplish on the night though.
A win against the Bucks will ensure that Miami records its best start through 38 games in the franchise history.
In the all time match-up between the two teams, Miami is 52-30 versus the Bucks in the regular season. The 52 overall wins are the third-most Heat have posted against an opponent with Washington-64 and New Jersey-52 being the other
two.
Miami has dominated the Bucks in their own back-yard as well. At present, Heat is 26-16 in games played at Milwaukee and have recorded at least one victory in Milwaukee in each of the last six seasons.
Miami currently leads this season’s series 2-0. The last encounter between the two teams was not lop-sided affair though. Milwaukee hung with their much fancied opponents for three quarters that night, and the Heat had to dig deep
to carve out a 101-89 victory. Erik Spoelstra was a relieved man after the match.
"The players probably enjoyed some other games more," He said. "But I think this was an important game. That's a very physical team. They're a very good defensive team. A lot of times when you play against them, it's a grind-out
game, and we had to play a different kind of game tonight, have some mental toughness and resiliency when things weren't necessarily going our way."
The Heat scored 46 of their points in the paint and capitalized on a 47-34 rebounding advantage as Dwyane Wade led the Heat with 34 points on 10-of-19 from the field and 13-of-15 from the charity stripe. Dwyane said later.
"We see why this team has beaten some very good teams."
The Bucks have knocked down some big names since the beginning of December. Los Angeles Lakers, Orlando Magics and Dallas Mavericks have all been their victims as facing elite teams seems to bring out the best in the Bucks. They
however, could not produce that same spite in their last match as they went cold in the first half to lose the match against Orlando.
The Bucks' competitiveness has been tied largely to their shooting on the field. Although they are fourth in the league in terms of points allowed, conversion rate has been one aspect they don’t appear to overcome. Shooting at
only 0.412 from the field and 0.734 from the free throw line, the Bucks are currently the worst scoring team in the league.
The bad news for Milwaukee is, that they will come up against one of NBA's best defences. The Heat currently sit atop the NBA in a few defensive categories. They rank first in opponent field goal percentage (.423), first in opponent
three-point field goal percentage (.319) and second in points allowed (91.9).
On the offensive end as well, they are protecting the ball ranking first in blocks allowed per game (2.51) and second in steals allowed per game (6.57).
In their last match on Jan.1, Heat held Milwaukee to only 39.7 percent shooting from the field, marking it as the 11th time this season Miami has held an opponent under 40 percent shooting from the floor as they improved to 11-0
in those contests. Additionally, the Heat have won its last 18 games in which they have held opponents under 40 percent shooting from the floor.
To make the matters worse for the Bucks, Bradley Centre has been one of the most favourite hunting grounds for LeBron James. The two times reigning MVP has had two of his eight career 50-point games in this arena.
James though is not the lone threat that Miami present.
With James and Chris Bosh to cover his back, Dwyane Wade has been simply unstoppable in the last few games. The dazzling shooting guard has notched up an average 35 points in the last five games and if the Bucks are to have any
chance of punching above their weight, they have to stop Wade from flowing freely.
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