The element of mystery surrounding this year’s Heat-Bucks series. And other things to know

The Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks faced off last postseason, but there is an element of mystery surrounding this year’s playoff matchup.

That’s because Heat star Jimmy Butler hasn’t played against the Bucks since averaging a team-high 23.4 points on 53.2 percent shooting, to go with 5.8 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.8 steals in last year’s second-round playoff upset of the Bucks in the NBA’s Walt Disney World bubble.

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Milwaukee won the regular-season series against Miami 2-1 this season, but Butler did not play in any of those games because of injuries.

“We all have a great feel for their group, their team,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said of the Heat on Tuesday afternoon following Milwaukee’s first practice in preparation for their playoff series against Miami. “The fact that we haven’t played them three times with Jimmy, I guess you don’t have that footage. But there’s a ton of respect for Jimmy Butler and what he does, how he plays, how he impacts their offense, impacts their defense. It’s always great to see yourself against an opponent, but I think the familiarity with these two teams is pretty high, pretty significant, including with Jimmy Butler.”

Barring something unforeseen, Butler will be available for the sixth-seeded Heat in its best-of-7 first-round playoff series against the third-seeded Bucks. The NBA announced that Game 1 at Fiserv Forum will be Saturday at 2 p.m. and televised on ESPN.

The schedule for the rest of the series will be announced in the coming days.

The Heat has been a significantly better team when Butler has been available this season. Miami finished the regular season with a 7-13 record in games that Butler missed and a 33-19 record when he played.

The Heat outscored opponents by 5.2 points per 100 possessions when Butler was on the court, and opponents outscored the Heat by 5.9 points per 100 possessions when he wasn’t on the court during the regular season for an off/court net rating differential of 11.1 points.

Butler averaged team highs in points, assists and steals this season.

“I think I’ve seen and played enough against Jimmy to know what he does,” Bucks guard Jrue Holiday said. “But I think what he does for their team is gives them a lot of confidence and he makes his team better. Individually for him, I feel like we know what he does and hopefully that’s the same for us. But yeah, I think Jimmy does a great job of building his team up elevating their game.”

Holiday added that Butler is “tough” and “somebody that doesn’t back down and somebody I respect because I love the way he plays.”

“He’s definitely my type of guy. I’m a big fan of Jimmy Buckets,” Holiday said.

The Bucks saw a lot of Butler last season, when then-fifth-seeded Miami eliminated then-top-seeded Milwaukee in a 4-1 second-round upset less than nine months ago on its way to the NBA Finals.

When asked what impact last year’s series has on the Bucks’ preparation for the Heat this postseason, two-time All-Star Khris Middleton said: “None. None. We’re a totally new team. We got a couple main guys left from last year, but it’s a whole new team. They have no idea what happened last year except for what they saw on TV.”

The Bucks are still led by two-time reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and Middleton, but they added Holiday via trade last offseason. Holiday is one of the NBA’s top two-way guards, and the Bucks have outscored opponents by 264 points this season when Antetokounmpo, Middleton and Holiday have been on the court together.

Milwaukee also acquired forward Bobby Portis and guard Bryn Forbes in free agency last offseason to strengthen its bench rotation, and traded for veteran three-and-D specialist P.J. Tucker in March.

“At the end of the day, we need to be concerned about us,” said Bucks guard Pat Connaughton, who was on Milwaukee’s roster for last year’s playoff series against Miami. “This is a new year. I don’t like living in the past. So will it be somewhat of a fun task to play a team that knocked us out in the second round last year? Maybe in retrospect. But I think for us now, this is a new year, this is a new team. We got new players, they got new players. We’re not in the bubble. There are so many different things that are going on.”

In the teams’ first meeting of this season, the Heat was crushed by the Bucks 144-97 at AmericanAirlines Arena on Dec. 29. The 47-point loss is tied for the Heat’s second-most lopsided defeat in franchise history. Miami never led in the game and Milwaukee shot 55.4 percent from the field and set a new NBA single-game record with 29 made threes.

In the team’s second meeting of the season, the Heat came out the next night and bounced back with a 119-108 win over the Bucks at AmericanAirlines Arena on Dec. 30. Miami trailed by as many as 14 points in the third quarter, but closed the period on a 30-19 run to enter the fourth quarter down by just three points. From there, the Heat outscored the Bucks 31-17 in a dominant fourth-quarter performance.

The team’s third and final matchup of the regular season came Saturday, when the Bucks earned a 122-108 win over the Heat at Fiserv Forum. Milwaukee shot 53.5 percent shooting from the field. The Heat lost by double digits even after it tied a single-game franchise record with 22 made threes in part because it was outscored 50-34 in the paint and 17-6 at the free-throw line.

“They’re a tough team,” Holiday said of the Heat. “They play hard. Very disciplined. Yeah, let’s lock in to what they like to do. I feel like talent-wise, we have a bit more of that. But there’s things that we have to do to be able to match their energy. Things that we can utilize and things that we have in our advantage.”

The Heat is scheduled to hold its first practice since the end of the regular season Wednesday at AmericanAirlines Arena.

OTHER THINGS TO KNOW

While the Heat is using the “United in Black” campaign for this season’s playoffs and will wear its black uniforms as often as possible, it will wear its Trophy Gold uniforms for Game 1 on Saturday in Milwaukee. The home team, in this case the Bucks, is given first choice on uniforms.

Also, the Heat announced Road Rally watch parties for the first two road playoff games. Saturday’s Game 1 gathering will be at Wharf Miami and Game 2 will be at Duffy’s Sports Grill in North Miami Beach.

The first two games will be played in Milwaukee before the series moves to AmericanAirlines Arena for Games 3 and 4. If necessary, Games 5 and 7 will be played at Fiserv Forum and Game 6 will take place at AmericanAirlines Arena.

The Heat has already begun playoff ticket sales to season-ticket holders, and individual tickets for the first round of the playoffs will go on sale to the general public Wednesday at 2 p.m. at Heat.com, Ticketmaster.com, and all Ticketmaster outlets.