Why the Milwaukee Bucks must continue to push themselves

Following a resilient 130-116 win against the Miami Heat on Thursday, the Milwaukee Bucks must continue to push themselves moving forward.

After an embarrassing first half against the Miami Heat on Thursday, the Milwaukee Bucks used a dominant second-half performance to lift an incredible comeback that ultimately led to defeating the Heat for the first time this season while avoiding a third straight loss in the bubble.

The Bucks were down as many as 23 points in the first half of the game and trailed 73-56 at halftime. Miami was exploiting the weaknesses of the Bucks’ system from all angles, and it seemed like the Bucks were continuously being outworked and thrashed upon.

Milwaukee has always been focused on protecting the paint defensively and therefore allowing many 3-point attempts on the perimeter, so Miami took complete advantage of that in the first half, nailing 13 of 24 attempts from beyond the arc.

The Heat possess a variety of efficient 3-point shooters along with gritty defenders that execute and match up well against the Bucks on both ends of the floor, and they proved that once again to start the game.

However, Milwaukee immediately flipped the switch once they came out of the locker room for the second half. The Bucks would quickly cut the lead to single digits to start the third quarter and then kept pace with them until they pulled away with it late in the fourth. Their courageous comeback was capped off by a clutch 20-0 run to give them the lead for good.

It was a special win for the Milwaukee Bucks, not just because it was a historic come-from-behind win, but that it also clinched the No. 1 seed in the East for the Bucks and head coach Mike Budenholzer got to celebrate a victory on his birthday.

Looking back at the tale of two halves throughout Thursday’s contest between the Bucks and the Heat, what may have inspired or motivated the Milwaukee Bucks to change the narrative in the second half?