MILWAUKEE -- Before the Milwaukee Bucks broke the huddle for the final possession of regulation, Jerryd Bayless went to Jared Dudley to ask if he really was going to consider making the difficult pass required to get him the ball.
As it turns out, he was both willing and able.
Dudley made a perfect pass to hit Bayless, who shook Derrick Rose with a baseline cut to hit a right-handed layup as time expired to send the Bucks to a 92-90 victory Saturday in Game 4 at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
By staving off elimination, Milwaukee survived to play Game 5 at the United Center in Chicago on Monday.
"I was honestly just trying to beat (Rose) backdoor," Bayless said. "There was only 1.3 or whatever left on the clock. I was just trying to get him backdoor. We were going to try to act like I was going to the corner, and we were hoping he was going to bite. He bit on it and Duds made a spectacular pass. I was luckily able to finish it."
Bayless' layup gave the Bucks their first buzzer-beating playoff win since Sidney Moncrief beat the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals in 1982.
It also snapped Milwaukee's nine-game playoff losing streak dating back to a first-round Game 5 win over the Hawks in Atlanta in 2010.
It took a series of events to even give the Bucks a chance to win the game at the end of regulation.
Failing to utilize a two-for-one situation in a tie game, Bayless missed a contested layup with 22 seconds to play. Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau tried calling timeout, but instead his team played on.
Rose attempted a drive on Bayless but Dudley and O.J. Mayo, who left Kirk Hinrich open in the corner to help, cut him off. With Rose dribbling left, Khris Middleton swarmed to strip the ball.
As soon as Middleton had control, Bucks coach Jason Kidd got in front of official Zach Zarba to ensure he saw him call timeout.
"It just popped (into my head)," Kidd said of the heads-up timeout. "It is just understanding the moment. We have a low percentage of Khris getting down the court in a second and whatever the change was.
"Being able to have timeouts late (is important). Getting the steal and the stop was the most important thing. We got the stop and the timeout to be able to advance the ball."
The Bucks usually go to Middleton in late-game situations, but this time he was used as more of a decoy. Bayless was the first option with Mayo in the corner as the fallback plan.
Knowing how tough of a pass it was going to be, Bayless wanted to make sure Dudley was going to have the nerve to try it.
"I was curious," Bayless said. "I wanted to know, 'Are you really going to look for this?' One of the things coach Kidd stresses to us is that every cut is live. On that play, obviously it was a game-winning play, I was like, 'Duds, let me know if you are going to do it or not so I can be prepared.'
"The other part of the play was for Juice to come up and he could have shot the ball, as well. I was like, 'If you are going to look for it, I'm going to cut hard.' He told me he was. He made a good pass."
Dudley, who finished with 13 points and hit 3 of 4 3-point attempts off the bench, got enough on the pass to get it over Rose.
"I just saw Rose on the top side -- I was kind of shocked -- I thought he'd be behind him," Dudley said. "I made the good pass but Bayless made the play and scored.
"I knew there was not going to be anyone help-side, because (Joakim) Noah is always on the ball. There's only one other big and that's Taj (Gibson) and he was up top."
Rose hit a crucial 3-pointer in the final minute, but his eighth turnover of the game and his defensive blunder ended up preventing Chicago from closing out Milwaukee in Game 4.
"I put that all on me," Rose said. "I just wasn't paying attention to the ball. He spun out great -- a great call from Kidd -- but if anything, this is a learning experience. I feel bad for myself, I feel bad for my teammates knowing that we could have forced an overtime and I (messed) things up. I swear, I'm built for it."
With reserves Bayless, Mayo, Dudley and John Henson playing well in a unit with Middleton, Kidd sat starters Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ersan Ilyasova, Zaza Pachulia and Michael Carter-Williams the entire fourth quarter.
Mayo scored eight of Milwaukee's 19 fourth-quarter points, hitting a pair of 3-pointers, including one that put the Bucks up 90-84 with 1:42 to play.
Just as he often did during the first half of the season when the bench was outplaying the starters, Kidd stuck with the reserve group.
"That group was going (well) and we were going to ride them as long as they could stand," Kidd said. "Khris had some great looks that normally go down. I thought (Mayo) and Bayless were great."
Immediately after the final shot dropped, Bayless took the celebration over to the direction in which Wes Edens and Jamie Dinan were savoring their first playoff victory as co-owners of the Bucks.
Milwaukee may very well have its season end Monday in Chicago, but the promise of the franchise moving forward was only enhanced by the two playoff classics played at the Bradley Center this week.
"It is probably next to nobody picking us to make the playoffs," Kidd said when asked where winning a playoff game ranks in the rebuilding process. "Everything we do from here on out is a bonus. Most of you guys sitting here didn't have us here.
"For us to learn and grow as a young team, every minute we are on the floor is for us to get better. We want to get better each game. We got better today."
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