PHOENIX—Jrue Holiday seized his chance to give the Milwaukee Bucks the lead in the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals.
Took it right out of Devin Booker’s hands, actually.
Holiday’s steal and alley-oop pass to Giannis Antetokounmpo for a dunk sealed a wild Game 5 and gave the Bucks a 123-119 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night.
“It’s who he is,” teammate Pat Connaughton said. “He’s a winner.”
And for the first time in 50 years, the Bucks have a chance to be.
Antetokounmpo had 32 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Khris Middleton added 29 points, and Holiday had 27 points and 13 assists.
The Bucks fought their way out of an early 16-point hole by flirting with the best-shooting night in NBA Finals history, but then won it by making a huge defensive play for the second straight game.
They can win their first title since 1971 on Tuesday night in Milwaukee.
“Obviously we know what the deal is. It’s one game away from being the NBA champ,” said Antetokounmpo, whose postgame press conference was delayed because he was dehydrated.
Booker had 40 points, his second straight 40-point game. But with the Suns rallying and down one with 16 seconds left, he drove into the middle and Holiday wrestled the ball out of his hands.
“I was just trying to score the ball, he was behind me,” Booker said. “I turned and he was right there.”
Antetokounmpo sprinted down the court to his right and Holiday—rather than pulling the ball out to run the clock down—fired a perfect lob pass that the Greek Freak slammed down while Chris Paul fouled him to make it 122-119.
“Giannis took off and he was calling for the ball,” Holiday said. “At that point, I just threw it as high as I could and only where Giannis could go get it,”
Antetokounmpo missed the free throw, but the Bucks grabbed the rebound and Middleton made one free throw for the final point of the night.
Before the defensive stand, Milwaukee’s offense was the story. The Bucks made 32 of 45 shots in the middle two quarters, outscoring the Suns 79-53 during that stretch.
Milwaukee became the first road team to win in the series and with one more victory will complete its second 2-0 comeback in this postseason—along with the fifth in NBA Finals history.
Game Five winners of a tied series have won the series 21 of 29 times in the NBA Finals.
Image courtesy of AP