Bucks falter at the line during furious comeback

With just under five minutes left and the Milwaukee Bucks in the midst of a ferocious comeback that had them down by six points after trailing by 25 in the third quarter, Giannis Antetokounmpo stepped to the free-throw line. Exhausted from playing all but 81 seconds of the game, he left his first attempt well short.

In that moment, the fans at the BMO Harris Bradley Center collectively rose to their feet, cheering at full throat and hoping that their energy transferred to muscles of Bucks' drained superstar. It worked, as Antetokounmpo knocked down the ensuing shot.

"I was extremely tired, but I was just motivated by my teammates and the fans in the crowd," Antetokounmpo said. "You've got to be tired, it's the playoffs. I was just thinking in my mind 'do whatever it takes to help my team win,' and just fighting through it.”

Lift from the crowd aside, the results from that trip to the charity stripe proved to be typical for the Bucks in the fourth quarter. They dug in and frantically erased that 25-point deficit — leading by two with under 2 1/2 minutes left — but that energy output took a toll as Milwaukee fell, 92-89, on Thursday night as the Bucks went 9 for 18 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.

Antetokounmpo, who made 7 of 13 free throws on the night and scored a team-high 34 points, went 3 for 8 from the line in the fourth. All of his attempts came in a window of 1 minute, 27 seconds as he summoned the energy to attack the basket on almost every touch in that span. He tried to find rest while preparing for each set of free throws, waiting as long as possible to get to the line before executing his lengthy shooting routine.

"I was tired," said Antetokounmpo, who took on a bigger workload this series and finished for 46 from the stripe after being a 77.0% shooter during the regular season. "I'm supposed to knock those free throws down, but I'm not mad at myself because I've been working all year at the free-throw line. ... I'm sure Khris (Middleton) was tired, too, he played 42 minutes and wasn't feeling great."

BOX SCORE: Raptors 92, Bucks 89

GAME STORY:   Frantic comeback falls short in Game 6

D'AMATO: Bucks close gap on future

Middleton, who missed practice on Wednesday due to illness and was physically unable to speak after the game due to his sore throat, joined Antetokounmpo in playing all 24 minutes in the second half — the only Bucks players to do so. The team-leader as an 88.0% free-throw shooter this season, Middleton ran into a cold stretch in the fourth quarter as well. He scored six of his 19 points in that frame, contributing two assists, two rebounds and two steals, but made just 3 of 6 free throws.

"(The comeback) took a lot of effort, obviously," said Matthew Dellavedova, who made 1 of 2 free throws in the fourth. "A lot of guys had to dig deep. Khris, Giannis playing a lot of minutes, they did an unbelievable job to give us an opportunity to get back in."

NOTES: Veterans Terry, Dellavedova show teammates the way

NBA: Playoff scoreboard, box scores, recaps

The missed free throws were the fly in the ointment in an otherwise incredible comeback. Antetokounmpo and Middleton may have missed opportunities at the stripe, but without their other contributions Milwaukee wouldn't have had much hope to begin with. That especially holds true for Antetokounmpo, who finished with 34 points, nine rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks while logging more minutes than he has in any other game this season.

By the end of Game 6, he was totally spent.

"And he should be," Jason Terry said. "The talk after the game was, 'See now, this is how it feels. This is what you should feel like as a superstar in this league. Every night you step on that floor you should feel exhausted because you gave everything you have.' ...

"I guarantee you one thing about that young man, it will fuel him, it will motivate him as he goes on the rest of his journey and throughout the summer because times like these you really dig deep and find out who you are. I think this was just a part of his growth and development."