League Pass Game of the Day: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Miami Heat (8 ET)
Milwaukee and Miami will face off for the final time in the regular season as both teams continue to fight for postseason positioning.
The Milwaukee Bucks (42-34) visit South Beach for their final matchup against the Miami Heat (35-42) on Saturday (8 ET, League Pass). The Bucks have won two in a row to take hold of the fifth seed in the East, while the Heat are coming off a buzzer-beating loss that snapped their six-game win streak.
Five things you should know before tipoff:
1. Giannis Antetokounmpo in the record books: Giannis put on a historical performance in the Bucks’ 126-113 win over Philadelphia on Thursday, dropping 35 points, 17 rebounds, and a career-high 20 assists. He became the first player in NBA history to record a triple-double with this stat line, adding two steals and only two turnovers in 39 minutes. Antetokounmpo has now scored 30-plus points in six consecutive outings, averaging 32.7 points, 11.2 rebounds, 8.5 assists and 1.3 steals while shooting 63.1% from the field during that span.
2. Bucks battling for playoff positioning: Milwaukee has struggled with consistency recently, going 6-9 in their last 15 games. The rough patch caused them to drop from fourth to sixth in the East, but a pair of wins, coupled with Detroit dropping two straight this week, has them back in control of the fifth seed. The Bucks and Pistons wrap up the NBA regular season with a home-and-home series that will determine postseason positioning for both squads.
3. Tyler Herro’s lethal scoring: Herro has been the alpha scorer in Miami all season long, but he’s turned things up a notch down the stretch. Over his last seven games, the sixth-year combo guard is torching opponents with 28.9 points, 5.0 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 1.4 steals on absurd shooting splits of 56.9% FG/48.8% 3PT/95.3% FT. His nearly 29 ppg is the seventh-highest figure in this stretch, while his plus-15.0 plus-minus rating ranks fourth.
4. Pelle Larsson’s impact: Larsson, a rookie second-rounder out of Arizona, has taken advantage of his increased role for the Heat in the last week. He has started Miami’s last four contests, responding with averages of 12.0 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.5 steals in 28.3 minutes, while shooting 47.2% from the field and 40.0% from behind the arc (2.5 attempts per game). Larsson recorded four steals in two of those four games.
5. Miami’s improved play: After losing ten consecutive games from Mar. 5 – 21, Miami rebounded by winning six in a row before falling to the Grizzlies on a buzzer-beater from Ja Morant on Thursday night. The Heat have played perhaps their best basketball of 2024-25 over the last couple of weeks, and the turnaround couldn’t have come at a better time with the SoFi Play-In Tournament just ten days away (Apr. 15 – 18). During this seven-game stretch, Miami is second in offensive (124.0), defensive (105.5) and net rating (18.5), third in effective field goal percentage (59.3), fifth in true shooting percentage (62.2), first in three point accuracy (46.2), and tied for first in steals (10.3).
