Milwaukee Bucks playoff series with the Miami Heat has Marquette hoops connections

The Milwaukee Bucks know who they will be playing in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

The Miami Heat rallied to beat the Chicago Bulls in the NBA Eastern Conference play-in game.

The Bucks will host the Heat on Sunday at the Fiserv Forum for Game 1 of the best-of-seven series. This is the third time in four years that these two teams will face each other in the playoffs.

The Heat bounced the Bucks in the 2020 Eastern Conference semifinals on their way to the NBA Finals. The Bucks got revenge the next year when they swept the Heat in the first round of the 2021 Eastern Conference playoffs. That series victory was part of the Milwaukee Bucks’ magical championship run. The hope is history repeats itself in the Bucks’ favor.

Some familiar faces will be featured in this series for one fan base connected to Milwaukee.

Marquette basketball fans will be thrilled to know a couple of players who graduated from the program will be playing in the series.

Jimmy Butler came up big for the Heat in their fourth-quarter comeback to beat the Bulls. Not that Marquette fans would expect anything less. Butler made some big shots during his three years playing for the Golden Eagles.

Butler has become somewhat of a villain in the Milwaukee area with how he helped Miami bounce the Bucks in 2020. Then he made the “insanely locked-in” comment before the rematch in the 2021 playoffs.

Butler is the Heat’s alpha dog and leading scorer at 22.9 points per game. He will get help from center Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro, the pride and joy of Whitnall High School (located in a suburb of Milwaukee). Max Strus, a DePaul alum, had a big game against the Bulls and can knock down shots from the outside.

Jamal Cain is another Marquette Golden Eagles alumnus on the Heat roster. Although, he will not be seeing the court in this series as he is on a two-way contract this year. He has played in just 18 games for the NBA club as he is being developed in the G League.

The Milwaukee Bucks will counter with two Golden Eagles legends in Jae Crowder and Wesley Matthews.

Crowder was brought in during a midseason trade to fill the role PJ Tucker played in the 2021 title run. Matthews was on the 2020 Bucks team that lost to the Heat. Crowder helped knock out the Bucks that year when he was with the Heat.

Crowder was also in the same villain category that Butler was in, but he is now a welcomed son since returning to Milwaukee.

Matthews and Crowder are chasing their first NBA Championship. Crowder has played in two of the last three NBA Finals and has come up short both times.

It will be interesting to see if Matthews is part of the playoff rotation. His defense is still solid. Grayson Allen and Pat Connaughton are both hobbling into the playoffs with late-season injuries. Khris Middleton has had his minutes restricted all season with knee problems.

At the same time, all three players are ready to go, and add in Joe Ingles, Matthews might be the odd man out.

Still, the Marquette fan base is happy to see four favored sons in the NBA playoffs and two of them (Crowder and Matthews) have a shot to win an NBA Championship.