By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
It took an extra five-minute period and a little bit of “luck’, but the Milwaukee Bucks beat Brooklyn Nets 115-111 in overtime of Game 7 to move to the Eastern Conference finals.
This marks the first NBA playoffs Game 7 to be decided in overtime in 15 long years, as the Bucks survived a big-time 48-point performance by the Nets‘ Kevin Durant, who nearly won the game for the Nets in regulation. Durant forced OT with a turnaround jumper that was just a few inches from being a three-pointer that would have won the game for the Nets.
On the same night, he also made history for the most points scored by a player in a Game 7 (per NBA History).
Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with a double-double of 40 points and 13 rebounds, and Khris Middleton, who made the tiebreaking shot with 40 seconds left in OT, added 23 points and 10 rebounds.
It should be also noted that Giannis and Durant became the third pair of opposing players to each score 40+ points in a Game 7, joining LeBron James/Paul Pierce in 2008 and Sam Jones/Oscar Robertson in 1963, while Giannis is just the 5th player in NBA history to record 40+ points and 10+ rebounds in a Game 7, after Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Charles Barkley and Tim Duncan.
This is the second time in three years that the Bucks make it through the Conference Finals, and now the team will have to wait for its opponent, that will either be the Philadelphia 76ers or Atlanta Hawks, with the series starting Wednesday.
James Harden flirted with triple-double figures in the last game of the season for the Nets with 22 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists, while Blake Griffin had 17 points.
Photo: Getty Images