MILWAUKEE — A few minutes into the Milwaukee Bucks’ Game 4 loss to the Indiana Pacers, Bobby Portis was ejected for scuffling with Andrew Nembhard. The veteran forward went back to the visitor’s locker room deep inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse, took a seat at his locker and watched the rest of the game without even taking off his jersey. Time and again throughout the night, he saw moments where he knew he could have helped his team.

As Game 5 approached, all Portis wanted was a chance to set things right. He started the day by apologizing to his teammates during a film session, then went out and showed them he really meant it by pouring in a playoff-career-high 29 points on 14-of-24 shooting from the field and grabbing 10 rebounds in the Bucks’ season-saving 115-92 win. 

By the time he walked off the court for good late in the fourth quarter, he did so to a standing ovation and the familiar “Bobby! Bobby!” chant that has become a staple at Fiserv Forum throughout his tenure. 

“Every time he steps on the court he leaves it all out there,” Brook Lopez said. “He goes out there and he can hoop, he wants to win and fans just love that obviously. We knew BP was gonna come out and be himself and be great.” 

After winning Game 1 comfortably, the short-handed Bucks dropped three in a row and found themselves down 3-1 — a deficit they have never overcome in franchise history. Giannis Antetokounmpo hasn’t played the entire series due to a calf injury, and Damian Lillard has sat out of the last two games due to an Achilles issue. 

It’s unclear when or if the Bucks’ stars will be back in the first round, and Portis hadn’t handled the extra pressure their absences put on him very well during the Bucks’ three consecutive defeats. He gave the Pacers bulletin board material by calling them “frontrunners” after Game 2, scored 31 points on 31 shots in Games 2 and 3 combined, then got tossed from Game 4.  

Rivers was “very proud” of how Portis responded on Tuesday, as were his teammates. While they all knew how Portis felt about letting them down a few nights ago, Khris Middleton said it “meant a lot” that Portis got up in front of the group and held himself accountable. 

Portis’ mature and steady performance meant even more. He got to his spots, knocked down shots and played within the flow of the offense. And when the two teams got into it once more in the middle of the second quarter, Rivers said Portis was the one keeping everyone calm. 

“Sometimes in basketball games or any type of competitive scene, there’s kind of individual battles you fight throughout the game,” Portis said. “I got caught up in an individual war with one of their players [in Game 4]. Just tried to zone out tonight, just worry about doing the things that coach and my team needed. Just follow the game plan and just play as hard as I could knowing that it was an elimination game.”

Portis is, in many ways, a bellwether for this Bucks team. 

They were 10-4 in the regular season when he scored 20 points or more and 22-11 when he put up at least 15 points, compared to 27-22 when he failed to get to the latter number. He was much better at home, where he averaged 15.5 points on 53.6% shooting, compared to 12 points on 47.2% shooting on the road. Likewise, the Bucks went 31-11 in Milwaukee and 18-22 on their travels. 

All of those trends have been magnified in the playoffs given their injury problems. Portis’ heroics may have extended the series long enough to give Antetokounmpo and Lillard — both “very, very close” to playing per Rivers — the chance to return. If not, they’ll need Portis to break the season-long trends and deliver in Indianapolis on Thursday night in Game 6. 

“We know what we gotta do,” Lopez said. “We know the team we are, we know the players we are, we know the challenge we have ahead… The past is in the past. He just has to come out, be himself, take it a game at a time.” 

Milwaukee Bucks guard Patrick Beverley (oblique) is active for Tuesday’s Game 5 contest against the Indiana Pacers.

MILWAUKEE – A Milwaukee County judge sentenced Joel Blake on Monday, April 29 to life in prison in the shooting death of Dominic Carter in September 2021.

Blake was found guilty at trial in March on three charges against him – first-degree intentional homicide, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and felony bail jumping.

Case details

Prosecutors say Joel Blake was 22 years old in 2021 when he shot Carter, a Milwaukee barber and youth mentor, multiple times at a pizza restaurant near Silver Spring and Lovers Lane.

According to a criminal complaint, police were called to the restaurant and found Carter on the floor – suffering from “numerous” gunshot wounds. Officers attempted life-saving measures, but Carter died.

Security video from the restaurant showed Carter walk in around 3:10 p.m. that day, standing near the door. Roughly one minute after Carter walked in, a suspect – since identified as Blake – approached the restaurant’s door. The suspect was wearing gloves with a distinct marking. The suspect opened the door, raised his arm and fired his gun at Carter before fleeing on foot.

A witness told police that they heard three gunshots and saw a man run from the restaurant with his hand in his pocket, “consistent with concealing an object,” the complaint states. The man got into the driver’s seat of a black Acura and drove off.

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Another witness told police, the complaint states, that they saw a black Acura circling the parking lot that day. The witness said the car had a temporary, expired license plate and identified the number for police. The witness also said they saw Carter walk over from his nearby barbershop. A short time later, the witness said, a man “jumped out of the Acura,” walked toward the restaurant and appeared to be concealing a weapon.

The witness said they continued to watch the man, suspecting that the restaurant was about to get robbed. According to the complaint, the witness watched the suspect “fling open the door” to the restaurant and shoot before getting back in the Acura and driving away.

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At around 10:45 p.m. the night of the homicide, police were called to an area near 107th and Mill for a reported vehicle fire. The complaint states the area is known to be frequented by members of the “Wild 100s” street gang.

Using the temporary license plate number given by the witness, police found it was registered to a 2002 black Acura and noted a VIN. A black Acura with the same VIN was the car that was on fire. According to the complaint, the fire was set by someone at two different points.

A confidential informant identified Blake from a photo as the homicide suspect, the complaint states. Blake is known to be associated with the Wild 100s, according to the complaint, and the informant provided information related to people getting the gasoline used to set the Acura on fire.

Law enforcement used that information to review security footage from a gas station near 27th and Capitol. Video showed a man – determined to be Blake, according to the complaint – with an Acura lanyard and a body type consistent with the shooter in the restaurant security video; he also had gloves bearing the same distinct marking. In the gas station footage, the man buys a gas can, fills it and drives off in a red vehicle.

Police reviewed Blake’s Facebook page and found a video posted on Sept. 20 in which he allegedly claimed he was shot at in retaliation for Carter’s death, the complaint states. In the video, Blake said: “I know what I did, you know what I did.” Later, Blake said, “Yeah, I did it to him,” – consistent with bragging about committing homicide, according to the complaint. In the video, Blake was seen wearing the same Acura lanyard and distinctly marked gloves. 

In other Facebook posts, Blake gave out his phone number. Police obtained a search warrant for records related to that number. GPS data showed that the phone was headed southbound on Lovers Lane and passed the pizza restaurant on Silver Spring roughly 15 minutes before the shooting took place. The data showed the phone circled the area within minutes of the shooting. There was a data gap until roughly 10 minutes after the shooting, but the phone was then placed near where the black Acura was later found on fire.