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Heading into the Eastern Conference's 1-8 matchup between the Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat, not a lot of folks thought the Heat had a chance to win even one game, never mind the series. After all, the Bucks finished with the best record in basketball at 58-24 during the regular season and have the best player on either side in Giannis Antetokounmpo.
However, the Heat put Milwaukee's dreams of a sweep to rest on Sunday. Led by 35 points from Jimmy Butler, the Heat shocked the Bucks in Game 1 and beat them on their home floor by a final score of 130-117 to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
While the Heat played a great game on Sunday and deserved all the credit in the world for pulling off the impressive Game 1 upset, there were several Bucks who underperformed and need to be better in Game 2. With that said, let's take a look at two Bucks in particular who are to blame for the Game 1 loss to Miami:
2 Bucks to blame for shocking Game 1 loss to Heat
Brook Lopez
Lopez finished the regular season off very strongly from a scoring standpoint. He averaged 19.6 points per game after the all-star break and had moments where he looked like the team's second-best offensive player. But the Bucks got little to no scoring from Lopez on Sunday.
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Lopez scored just 10 points in Game 1, his lowest point total since March 30th. But what stands out as even more disappointing than the point total is the fact that Lopez took just seven shots and four two-point field goals in a game that Antetokounmpo was hurt for the majority of.
Moving forward in this series, Lopez needs to be more aggressive in looking for his shot, particularly from inside the three-point arc. Considering the Heat's lack of size in their front court, Lopez will have plenty of opportunities to bully the Heat in the post for high-percentage shots, especially when center Bam Adebayo is out of the game.
Grayson Allen
Seeing Allen's name here might confuse some people, and that's understandable. Offensively, he was rock-solid on Sunday, as he dropped 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting from the field and 2-for-4 from three. But Allen arguably hurt the Bucks more on the defensive end than he helped them on offense.
Allen tried his hand at guarding several of Miami's top perimeter shooters — Tyler Herro, Max Strus, and Gabe Vincent — and had practically zero success in containing any of them. With Allen as the primary defender, Miami converted ten out of 13 field goal attempts (an otherworldly 76.9% clip) and went 4-for-6 from three.
Allen's number one priority heading into Game 2 should be to stick to Miami's shooters. If Allen can do a better job fighting through screens, it would go a long way toward helping the Bucks pick up a much-needed win on Wednesday.
All in all, Lopez's sub-par offensive showing and Allen's defense were big components of why the Bucks lost Game 1 in embarrassing fashion. But it's nowhere near time for Bucks fans to hit the panic button just yet. After all, a recent report from Shams Charania indicates that the Bucks are optimistic about Giannis Antetokounmpo's chances of playing in Game 2 after missing much of Game 1. Here's to hoping that Antetokounmpo is in the lineup on Wednesday and the Bucks earn a bounce-back win.
