Khris Middleton scored 32 points to power the Milwaukee Bucks into the NBA Finals on Saturday with a series-clinching 118-107 win over the Atlanta Hawks.
The third-seeded Bucks beat the host Hawks in the best-of-seven series 4-2 to book their first appearance in the league championship since 1974.
“As a little kid everybody wanted to be part of this chance to go to the finals. This is amazing,” said Bucks guard Jrue Holiday.
Milwaukee will face the Western Conference champion Phoenix Suns in the finals which begin on Tuesday.
The Bucks won despite the absence of two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who sat out with a injured left knee. The 26-year-old Greek forward hyperextended the knee when he landed awkwardly in game four of the series.
The Hawks got their top player Trae Young back after he missed the previous two games with a bruised foot. But Young struggled to score in game six, shooting just four-of-17, missing all six of his three point attempts and finishing with just 14 points.
Holiday stepped up for the second straight game to help fill Milwaukee’s offensive void with Antetokounmpo out. Holiday flirted with a triple double, finishing with 27 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.
Brook Lopez, who was the star of Thursday’s game five win with 33 points, delivered 13 points on Saturday for the Bucks.
The young Hawks, who last made it to the finals 60 years ago when they were based in St. Louis, were trying to force a seventh game.
Cam Reddish came off the bench to score a team high 21 points, Bogdan Bogdanovic had 20 points and John Collins finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds in the loss.
Middleton shot 10-of-22 from the field and made all eight of his free throws as he scored 16 straight points for the Bucks in the second half.
“I just tried to shoot and be confident, just play the right way,” Middleton said.
The Bucks started quickly, jumping out to a 15-4 lead in the first quarter after a Lopez dunk. The Hawks clawed their way back into it in the second quarter to trail by just four, 47-43, at the half.
Milwaukee broke the game open in the third quarter by outscoring the Hawks 44-29 as Middleton and Holiday took charge of the offence.
Lopez made an alley-oop dunk with 1:29 to go in the fourth to make it 113-110 and PJ Tucker nailed a clutch 23-foot three pointer with 62 seconds remaining to stretch the lead to 10 points and help seal the win.
The second seeded Suns will have home court advantage in the finals based on having a better record in the regular season.
Phoenix edged the Bucks in two games during the regular season, 128-127 in overtime in Milwaukee and 125-124 in Arizona.
They have met just once before in the postseason, back in 1978 when the Bucks won 2-0 in a best-of-three first round series.
