The Miami Heat beat the Milwaukee Bucks 119-114 in Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference first-round playoffs at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida, on Monday, leading the series 3-1.

The Heat are only one win from winning the series and becoming the first No. 8 seeded team to upset the conference leader since the Memphis Grizzlies did so against the San Antonio Spurs in 2011.

Jimmy Butler put the Heat in such a favorable position with postseason career-high 56 points, including 22 and 21 points in the first and fourth quarters respectively. His scores occupied 78.6 and 51.2 percent of the team's total scores in these two periods respectively. The Heat's president Pat Riley saw dominance like this before when he faced Michael Jordan as the head coach of either the New York Knicks or the Heat in the 1990s, but on Monday night, Butler was Riley's MJ.

It wasn't easy for anyone to perform like Butler in Monday's game. The Bucks, which had been trailing 2-1 in the series before Monday, were in a desperate need for a win on the road to tie the series and gain back the home court advantage. That's why they had Giannis Antetokounmpo back after he missed two straight games due to the back injury he suffered in Game 1 on April 16.

Antetokounmpo's return means more than adding a player who dropped a triple-double of 26 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists in Monday's game. The presence of the "Greek Freak" set Brook Lopez free. Instead of struggling in the dilemma between dropping back to protect the rim and closing out to guard Kevin Love defensively and failing to receive the ball offensively because of the Heat's ball-denying defense, Lopez could comfortably stay in the paint to implement his defensive duty because Antetokounmpo traveled around to provide help defense. Meanwhile, it's difficult for the Heat's defenders to deflect the passes by 2.13-meter-tall Antetokounmpo from the high post to Lopez in the low post.

As a result, Lopez shot 13-for-23 from the field to drop a double-double of 36 points and 11 rebounds, including seven on the offensive glass, He also contributed two steals and three blocks while limiting the Heat's field goal (FG) rate to 47.6 percent in the paint. Lopez made his Heat counterpart, two-time NBA All-Star Bam Adebayo, look like a rookie on both ends of the game.

That's why the Bucks led by as many as 15 points (87-72) on Monday night after building their advantage bit by bit in each of the first three periods. Butler's incredible performance of shooting 9-for-10 from the field understandably didn't make the Bucks panic because few would expect him to keep scoring like this for all four periods.

Butler missed all three of his shots in the second quarter. Though he scored 11 again in the third period, none of his three triples dropped. The Heat went through these two quarters without falling apart relying on the three 3-pointers by Duncan Robinson in the second quarter and Adebayo's nine points in the third.

Teammates' efforts not only earned time for Butler to save some strength to explode in the final period, one of them, namely Caleb Martin, also joined him to fight together. Martin drained three jumpers and two free throws to contribute 10 points for the Heat in the fourth quarter while Butler again turned on his dominating mode to make shots in front of Jrue Holiday, Lopez and even Antetokounmpo.

While butler went 6-for-8 from the field to carry the Heat forward in the fourth quarter, Antetokounmpo made only one of his four attempts and committed two turnovers. He missed one hook shot and one layup in the final minute, and likely the opportunity to extend this series to longer Game 6.

Game 5 will happen at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday.

Old LeBron James is still LeBron James

The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 117-111 in overtime (OT) in Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference first-round playoffs at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, on Monday, extending their lead to 3-1 in the series.

The purple and gold's key victory came from their solid defense that limited the opponents' FG rate to 39.6 percent and they wouldn't have done so without the great work of LeBron James on this front.

It's fair to assume that James, 38, doesn't have enough strength to dominate the floor offensively like he used to for most time of the game, though he still leads the team in average points per game of the series. With a smart brain of his, James knows the best timing is to release his power for the best effect. However, when he was "taking a breath" on the offensive end, James was also doing everything he could to help the team defensively.

James grabbed 20 rebounds, including 15 on the defensive glass, in Monday's game while delivering two blocks. The Grizzlies' charges of the rim were too massive and vicious for Anthony Davis and Jarred Vanderbilt to handle by themselves, not to mention that they had to watch out for the opponents' sharp offensive rebounding abilities. James lent the two a good hand in rim protection while drawing two offensive fouls by Ja Morant.

James was not in his best shooting form on Monday night as he missed 10 of his 18 FGs, including six from downtown. Nonetheless, the only shot he made in the fourth quarter, which was a layup in the final seconds, was both a typical "LeBron-James-style" bully ball, and a key play that tied the score at 104 for the purple and gold to drag the competition into OT.

Austin Reaves led the Lakers in scoring with 23 points in Game 4. He, Vanderbilt and D'Angelo Russell combined to drain seven triples. All of Russell's three 3-pointers were made in the fourth quarter before he was fouled out, but they were integral for the team to wipe a seven-point deficit (97-90) in this period.

The Grizzles changed their way of guarding screen plays after watching Davis dominate the paint in two of the previous three games. Instead of having the defender on the screener drop back, they chose to double-team the ball-handler while moving the corner defender to the center to contain the roller. Though Vanderbilt, who was often left open in the corner thanks to this kind of defense, made two triples in response, the Grizzlies managed to freeze Davis, who shot 4-for-13 from the field to get only 12 points.

Offensively, the Grizzlies shot 42 triples, many more than they did in the previous three games, on Monday, but only made nine of them. Their offensive production mainly came from Desmond Bane's surprisingly good touch in the middle range and the whole team's efforts in going for offensive rebounds that earned them 24 second-chance points.

Morant had his worst shooting performance in Monday's game as he missed 19 of his 24 attempts. Neither did Jaren Jackson Jr. do well by going 5-for-15 from the field. They have to do better when they go home to the FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee, for Game 5 on Wednesday or they won't come back to LA again this season.