Bucks Can’t Find Their Path, Going to 2-8 on the Season, Losing to Celtics
The Boston Celtics traveled to Milwaukee to face off the Milwaukee Bucks in their second matchup of the season. The Celtics come into this matchup after a tough faught win against the Nets on Friday night, winning in OT in the Garden. While the Bucks coming into this matchup with an extremely disappointing start of 2-7. While the Celtics have been struggling to find some production, some good news finally arose, Jaylen Brown returns back into the lineup after missing the past couple of games with a hip injury. Luke Kornet also returned for the Celtics after leaving Wednesday’s game against the Warriors with a hamstring injury. The Bucks were still without forward Khris Middleton, and also without guard Gary Trent Jr.
If there has been a major concern for the Celtics as of late, it has been how they have started out games. Both in this game, and the Nets game, the Celtics found themselves in a 16-2 deficit. Definitely not a place you want to start your game. But by the end of the 1st, the Celtics cut that lead to 10. In the 2nd, it got up to 17 points, only to go down to 11 points with a score of 58-69. But the Boston Celtics got back to playing Boston Celtic basketball. The Celtics from the end of the 2nd, into the 3rd went on a 24-6 run to put them back into this game. And after this, the game was within two possessions until the final seconds. The Celtics made a couple shots late, and also made the free throws while playing great defense containing Damian Lillard in isolation and helping the Celtics win 113-107.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was the best player on the floor for both teams. He had a light 43/13/5 with 2 blocks on 62% shooting, and was in control of the game for the entirety of the game. The issue for the Bucks, that was the only true standout for them in terms of positive production. Aj Green had nice shooting off the bench, scoring 12 points on 4/6 shooting. But Damian Lillard, could not find his shooting stroke tonight. If the Bucks want to get back into contention then he is going to have to play better. Lillard got 14/4/6 on 26.7% from the field, and 1/8 from 3. Brook Lopez 6 points, 2/6 shooting, Bobby Portis 12 points, 6/12 shooting. The Bucks can’t have these types of performances, especially if they want to get out of this hole that they put themselves in.
The Celtics got a great balance performance on both sides of the ball. JT lead the way for the Champs as he got 31/12/6, not shooting the ball well, but stepped up big on some late game possessions defensively. Payton Pritchard continues to love playing the Bucks and goes for 18 points off the bench, going 5/8 from deep. Jaylen in his first game back with 14/5/4. But the best defensive backcourt in the NBA stepped up offensively tonight. The stock exchange consisting of DWhite and Jrue Holiday both scored 15 points each. White got 15/6/6 with a steal and a block and Jrue got 15/2/3 with 2 steals. The impact these two have for the Celtics is massive.
The main story of this game was the lack of fouls called against the C’s star duo. Giannis threw an elbow at JB’s head and hit him to the ground, with only an offensive foul called, with many believing it should have been a flagrant call. And on the way back, Giannis put his hand out to make good riddance, and he pulled his hand out like a coy joke. Jaylen called him out afterwards stating, “Giannis is a child”. And on a JT corner 3 ball, Giannis put his foot in Tatum’s landing zone, causing JT to roll his ankle. That play is consistently called a flagrant-1, but no call results in the refs realizing they missed it, and telling JT sorry. But JT says that he could have missed a couple weeks, and that sorry doesn’t cut it.
Regardless, the Celtics pull out the massive win, in Milwaukee and now the C’s have the season tiebreaker over the Bucks. The Celtics next game is at home in Boston, against the Atlanta Hawks, for the first game of the NBA cup, on Tuesday. And the Bucks also play on Tuesday, against the Raptors, at home, for their first game in the NBA Cup.
