Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo goes up for a shot against Miami’s Bam Adebayo during Milwaukee’s series-clinching 120-103 win Saturday afternoon in Miami. Lynne Sladky/Associated Press
MIAMI — Turns out, there was a reason the Milwaukee Bucks weren’t worried about a playoff rematch with the Miami Heat in Round 1 this year.
The last four games proved why.
Brook Lopez scored 25 points, Giannis Antetokounmpo had a triple-double – 20 points, 12 rebounds and 15 assists – and the Bucks became the first team to advance in this year’s playoffs, beating the Heat 120-103 on Saturday and finishing off a four-game first-round sweep over last season’s Eastern Conference champions.
Bryn Forbes scored 22 points, Khris Middleton had 20, Bobby Portis 13 and Jrue Holiday 11 for Milwaukee, which outscored Miami by 24 points in the second half.
Bam Adebayo scored 20 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for Miami, which got 18 points from Kendrick Nunn, 14 from Tyler Herro, 13 from Goran Dragic and a triple-double – 12 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists – from Jimmy Butler.
The Heat became the second team in this playoff format to go from sweeping in the first round one year to being swept in the first round the next. The only other team to endure that: the then-New Jersey Nets, who swept New York in 2004 and lost 4-0 to Miami in 2005.
Once Milwaukee grabbed the first three games, history said the result was inevitable. NBA teams with 3-0 series leads are now 141-0 all-time in those matchups, with these Bucks becoming the 88th of those teams to finish off matters with a sweep.
TRAIL BLAZERS 115, NUGGETS 95: Norman Powell matched his career playoff high with 29 points and Portland won at home in Game 4 to even the first-round series.
Powell made four 3-points and was 11 of 15 from the floor. CJ McCollum added 21 points for the sixth-seeded Trail Blazers.
Game 5 is Tuesday night in Denver.
76ERS 132, WIZARDS 103: Joel Embiid set a career playoff high with 36 points and visiting Philadelphia routed Washington to take a 3-0 series lead.
Embiid scored 25 points in the first half, and finished 14 of 18 from the floor in 28 minutes before resting the entire fourth quarter. The top-seeded 76ers will go for the sweep in Game 4 on Monday.
Russell Westbrook had 26 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists for Washington after being a game-time decision because of a sprained right ankle. Bradley Beal added 25 points.
NOTES
MARK EATON, the 7-foot-4 shot-blocking king who twice was the NBA’s defensive player of the year during a career spent entirely with the Utah Jazz, has died. He was 64.
The team announced his death Saturday but did not give a cause or details, saying only that it was “unexpected.”
The Jazz described him in a statement as an “enduring figure in our franchise history” who had a “significant impact in the community after his basketball career.”
The center led the league in blocks per game four times, and his average of 5.6 per contest in 1984-85 remains the highest average since the NBA started officially tracking that statistic.
Eaton’s career blocks average of 3.51 per game is the best in NBA history.
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