Took it right out of Devin Booker's hands, actually.

Holiday's steal and alley-oop pass to Giannis Antetounmpo for a dunk sealed a wild Game 5 and gave the Bucks a 123-119 road victory to go 3-2 up over the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Finals on Saturday night.

"It's who he is," teammate Pat Connaughton said. "He's a winner."

Antetokounmpo had 32 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Khris Middleton added 29 points and Holiday had 27 points and 13 assists.

The Bucks fought their way out of an early 16-point hole by flirting with the best-shooting night in NBA Finals history, but then won it by making a huge defensive play for the second straight game.

They can win their first title since 1971 in Milwaukee on Tuesday night. Game 5 winners of a tied series have won the series 21 of 29 times in the Finals.

Booker had 40 points, his second straight 40-point game, for the Suns who must win there then back in Phoenix on Thursday if they are to secure their first title in the team's 53-year existence.

However he lacked sufficient support with the Suns' other big names failing to really fire.

Paul had 21 points and 11 assists, and Deandre Ayton finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

"We knew this wasn't going to be easy. We didn't expect it to be. It's hard," Paul said. "Coach said it all year long, everything we want is on the other side of hard and it don't get no harder than this."

With the Suns rallying and down one with 16 seconds left, Booker drove into the middle and Holiday wrestled the ball out of his hands.

Antetokounmpo sprinted down the court to his right and Holiday fired a perfect lob pass that the Greek Freak slammed down while Chris Paul fouled him to make it 122-119.

Antetokounmpo missed the free throw, but the Bucks grabbed the rebound and Middleton made one free throw for the final point of the night.

Before the defensive stand, Milwaukee's offense was the story. The Bucks made 32 of 45 shots in the middle two quarters, outscoring the Suns 79-53 during that stretch.

Milwaukee became the first road team to win in the series and with one more victory will complete its second 0-2 comeback in this postseason - along with the fifth in NBA Finals history.

Australian Associated Press