Heat win 137-95 over NBA champion Bucks to start the season

The Miami Heat opened their season with an easy 137-95 victory over the NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night, with Tyler Herro scoring 27 points in 24 minutes off the bench and Jimmy Butler adding 21.

The Heat set team records for scoring and margin of victory on opening night, with Bam Adebayo scoring 20 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. It was the second-largest margin of victory in NBA history, trailing only a 43-point victory over the Los Angeles Clippers in 1994.

The previous team record for points in an opening game was 128 against Detroit in 1999, and the largest margin of victory was 26 against Orlando in 2000.

Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo had 15 points and Grayson Allen had 14. For the Bucks, who played without Jrue Holiday (right heel), Brook Lopez (back), and Bobby Portis, Olympic gold medalist Khris Middleton scored 10 points on 4-for-14 shooting (left hamstring). Milwaukee was outrebounded 58-38 by Miami.

P.J. Tucker had eight points and six rebounds in his Miami debut against the club he helped win an NBA title a few months ago.

Tucker's first foul of the game came just 38 seconds into the game when he reintroduced Antetokounmpo. Tucker also went flying in the second quarter while chasing down a loose ball, colliding with the Milwaukee bench and greeting occupants of some of the most expensive seats in the sold-out arena.

Butler, Herro, and Duncan Robinson, Miami's bigger wing players, were equally as active in attacking Milwaukee's defense. Even when the Bucks sent many players to the defensive boards, the Heat didn't just let uncontested rebounds go unchallenged; they frequently kept a couple of men under the hoop to harass and compete for loose balls.

Butler scored 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting, while Herro scored 27 points on 10-of-18 shooting off the bench. Bam Adebayo had a double-double with 20 points and 13 rebounds. Tucker got a double-double with eight points and six rebounds.

Allen played the most minutes of any Bucks starter, totaling 29 minutes and scoring 14 points on 5 of 11 shooting. Connaughton and Hill were restricted to only 14 points on 6-of-13 shooting, including 2-for-7 from outside the arc.

Mamukelashvili (12 points), Nwora (11 points), and Justin Robinson (five points) all played more than 20 minutes off the bench, while Thanasis Antetokounmpo scored six points and five rebounds in 18 minutes. Georgios Kalaitzakis, a rookie, played 18 minutes and scored eight points.