Quick Hitters Bucks bounce back to beat Nets and force Game 7

MiLWauKee – Khris Middleton and the Milwaukee Bucks refused to fold under pressure and wouldn’t allow Kevin durant to produce one more remarkable comeback that could end their second-round playoff series.

Middleton set a career playoff high with 38 points, Giannis antetokounmpo added 30 and the Milwaukee Bucks never trailed in a 104-89 victory over the Brooklyn nets on Thursday night to force a decisive seventh game.

Game 7 will be Saturday night in Brooklyn. The home team has won each of the first six games in this series.

“We don’t think about any type of pressure at all,” Middleton said. “it’s a basketball game. it’s as simple as that. i know it’s lose-orgo-home, but at the same time, it’s just basketball. you’ve got to have fun with it. Those moments are fun, you know, when the game’s on the line.”

Milwaukee bounced back two nights after blowing a 17-point lead in a 114-108 Game 5 loss at Brooklyn that featured an epic 49-point, 17-rebound, 10-assist performance from durant.

The Bucks shot just 7 of 33 from 3-point range but made up for it by outscoring the nets 26-4 in fast-break points.

“it definitely hurt us,” nets coach Steve nash said of the fast-break points. “That’s where they’re really strong. i thought we had some problems getting back in transition. ”

durant occasionally seemed on the verge of leading the nets back once again Thursday.

He scored 10 straight nets points during one third-quarter stretch as Brooklyn narrowed a 14-point deficit to five. He sparked a 10-0 run early in the fourth quarter that got the margin down to five again.

each time, Middleton responded by making a basket or getting to the free-throw line.

“you know in those moments, he’s going to make the right play,” antetokounmpo said. “We know that when he feels good, we’ve got to give him the ball.”

Point scores again, Lightning beat Islanders in Game 3

uniOndaLe, n.y. – after keeping up his scoring touch to help Tampa Bay get a big road victory its Stanley Cup semifinal series, Brayden Point was especially proud of the Lightning’s defensive effort.

Point got the tiebreaking goal late in the second period, andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 27 shots and the Lightning beat the new york islanders 2-1 on Thursday night to take a 2-1 series lead.

The islanders outshot the Lightning 8-5 in a tight third period, but couldn’t tie it. They pulled goalie Semyon Varlamov for an extra skater with about 1:48 remaining but couldn’t manage a shot on goal.”

“They had some control late, something to look at,” Point said “We still had guys sacrificing, blocking shots and all that good stuff. We’ll take the win for sure.”

yanni Gourde also scored to help Tampa Bay improve to 6-1 on the road in the playoffs.

“We kept the game really simple,” Gourde said. “We managed the game for most part of the game and that was the key, especially in the third period. We closed the ice pretty well and we got the puck deep whenever we got the chance. i think that was very important for us.”