Fifty years after winning their first and only NBA title, the Milwaukee Bucks will play for the crown again.
With their injured star Giannis Antetokounmpo watching from the sidelines, the Bucks held on for a 118-107 victory over the Atlanta Hawks to claim their Eastern Conference Finals series 4-2.
The Bucks move on to face the Western Conference champion Phoenix Suns in the NBA Finals.
After leading by four at the half, Milwaukee blew the game open in the third quarter, outscoring Atlanta 44-29.
Khris Middleton had 23 points in the quarter after scoring just five in the first half. He would finish with 32 points and seven assists.
23 for Khris Middleton in the 3Q, including the first 16 @Bucks points! #NBAECF presented by AT&T on TNT pic.twitter.com/XMbGFPAItw
— NBA (@NBA) July 4, 2021
The Bucks knew they would need Middleton and Jrue Holiday (27 points, nine rebounds and nine assists) to carry the load as Antetokounmpo missed a second straight game after hyperextending his left knee in Game 4.
The Hawks got their star Trae Young back after he sat out the previous two games with a bone bruise in his foot, but he was nowhere near his usual self.
Young entered the game averaging 29.8 points in the playoffs but managed only 14 on Saturday on four-of-17 shooting from the field, missing all six of his three-point attempts.
Cam Reddish emerged as the offensive star for the Hawks, coming off the bench to score 21 points on six-of-seven from three-point range and help Atlanta claw back into the game after trailing by as many as 22 in the fourth quarter.
The Hawks got the margin down to six with less than four minutes remaining but ran out of gas in the end. The defeat represents yet another playoff disappointment for Atlanta sports teams.
The Hawks' lone NBA title came in 1958, when they were still based in St Louis, while the NFL's Falcons have never won it all and MLB's Braves have just one World Series title, in 1995.
Only MLS newcomers Atlanta United have cracked the code in the last quarter century with their 2018 crown.
While the Hawks are left to wait for next year, Milwaukee are eyeing their first championship since 1971 in their first NBA Finals appearance since 1974.
