The Milwaukee Bucks have made their presence felt in the NBA Finals, outscoring Phoenix by 25 points in the second and third quarters on the way to a 120-100 win in Game 3 to cut the Suns lead to 2-1.

Phoenix actually led by three after the first quarter and was shooting 50-percent from the field. But the Bucks came to life inside a raucous Fiserv Forum to close the second quarter on a 30-9 run to take a 15-point halftime lead. The Suns didn’t go away, though, climbing to within four in the third quarter before Milwaukee answered with another huge run that included scoring 16 straight points to end the period. It would be all the Bucks needed, as Phoenix never challenged in the fourth quarter.

Giannis Antetokounmpo put together another huge effort. He had 18 points at halftime and ended up with 41 points and 13 rebounds. It allowed him to become just the second player in league history to post 40-plus points and 10-plus rebounds in back-to-back NBA Finals games, joining Shaquille O’Neal. Antetokounmpo also went 13-for-17 from the free throw line, the third-most makes in his playoff career.

“We know what kind of game this was going to be,” Antetokounmpo said. “We knew that if we lose the game, you are in a hole, 3-0 or whatever the case might be. We knew that we had to come here and play great basketball.”

While the two-time MVP brought it like he has for much of the playoffs, guard Jrue Holiday made his presence felt on the offensive end for the first time in the series. He drilled a 3-pointer for the first basket of the game and went on to hit four more, including three timely ones in the third quarter. Holiday ended up with 21 points, nine assists and the Bucks were 22 points better than Phoenix when he was on the floor.

“He’s a great player,” Antetokounmpo said of Holiday. “We need him to keep playing like this. We trust him. He’s our leader. He’s our point guard. He’s one of our scorers. He’s one of our defenders. He’s a great basketball player, and he’s going to keep figuring out ways to be successful.”

Bobby Portis gave the club a huge lift of the bench both in scoring (11 points), rebounding (eight rebounds) and a ton of energy, while Khris Middleton was also better, scoring 18 points after managing just 11 points in Game 2.

One of the keys to the win was limiting Phoenix’s backcourt of Chris Paul and Devin Booker. The duo was held to 29 points, including just 10 from Booker. He was just 3-for-14 from the field and ended up sitting out the entire fourth quarter.

“It wasn’t (good), obviously,” Booker said of his offensive struggles. “But there’s nights like that. The most important part to me is winning the game and we didn’t do that, so I’m more frustrated about that. But we have a few days off here. We’re going to get back right and going to go over film and be ready Wednesday.”

Coming into the game the Bucks were in an 0-2 hole for the second time in these playoffs. Like they did the previous time against Brooklyn in a series they would eventually win in seven games, Milwaukee showed it wouldn’t go quietly just because it lost the first two games on the road.

“I think it’s just our toughness, being able to go through a lot of adversity during the season and playoff runs, knowing that as long as we’ve still got five guys that can go out and play we’ve still got a chance,” Middleton said. “I think that’s most important. That we have all the confidence in the world in each one of our guys. Whoever steps out on the court that we can get the job done.”

The Bucks improved to 8-1 at home this postseason and there is no doubt they’ve fed off the atmosphere inside the arena and out. There were actually more fans in the Deer District (25,000 plus) outside than the number in the arena (17,000).

“Just having these guys here that really believe in us and trust in us, and having 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 fans outside just going crazy and having 17,000 inside, it’s just a great time to be a Buck right now and it’s a great time for the city of Milwaukee,” Portis said. “It’s real diverse out there. See a lot of people just mingling and being together. I think just us winning and impacting the city has brought the city together.”

Milwaukee will try to even the series in Game 4 on Wednesday at Fiserv Forum.