I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the Bucks leading by 21 with the ball and 3:15 left — and still leading by 16 with the ball and 1:19 left — and getting pushed to OT. That has to be an all-time meltdown, right?
with 3:22 left and his team up 90-69, Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer subbed out all of his starters
Toronto guard Fred VanVleet then hit back-to-back three-pointers to make it 90-75 and Budenholzer sent his starters back into the game. The run was on – keyed by a full court press – and the Raptors chipped away at the lead.
“Couple of turnovers trying to inbound the ball against the press," Budenholzer said. "It felt like if we got the ball in we were able to get it across halfcourt and then we had a couple turnovers in the halfcourt that you just can’t have that we’ve got to work on and improve.”
They were still down 11 points with just 43 seconds left when Scottie Barnes made it 97-88. Then, the Bucks couldn’t get the ball in. The turnover led to a Gary Trent Jr. three-point attempt – which he sank despite getting hit below the belt by Allen. Trent Jr. made the free throw (97-92) and then Barnes sunk another layup on the extra possession to make it 97-94.
Toronto’s Pascal Siakam pushed Bobby Portis out of bounds in front of the Bucks bench to force a turnover, and then Trent Jr. hit a step-back three over Brook Lopez with 1.5 seconds left to send the game to overtime.
“Definitely after, hindsight, thinking about it I would do it differently – I wouldn’t take the guys out,” Budenholzer said. “But, up 20, on a back-to-back, you hope that you can finish that out. But a 6-0 run in a matter of 15, 20 seconds, that probably gave them the life to take it all the way down. So, it’s unfortunate and we’d like to be better, including myself.”
1:22 left Milwaukee ball up 16pts (95-79) video
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4K3pecHpek