BOSTON — The Celtics keep evolving and winning. No matter the circumstances.
Late in a week where they rested and won decisively in back-to-back wins over the Heat and Pistons, it came as no surprise they competed without Kristaps Porziņģis on Friday. Al Horford’s ageless efforts long ago became expected. Winning on bad shooting nights? That began last year. Sustaining three massive Giannis Antetokounmpo punches and winning all three games? Boston hadn’t swept the season series over Milwaukee since 2011-12, one calendar year before the Bucks drafted Antetokounmpo. Torturing this team is new.
They did just that, defeating Milwaukee, 111-105, in a game with 14 lead changes and 11 ties. The Bucks led several times late, and lost missing 11 of their last 12 shots after Boston had fallen below its standard on defense to begin this year. The Celtics drove-and-kick constantly through both stars while Milwaukee looked flat and inflexible. Antetokounmpo, not Jayson Tatum, took the baffling pull-up jumper at the end of the game.
“They didn’t settle,” Doc Rivers said. “They kept playing and I thought we settled. It’s night-and-day, the difference between the two teams. They’re a made team. They’ve been through it. They’ve been through the war together. They understand it and they play that way. They have the ultimate trust. They’ll pass until one second on the clock to try to find someone, and they did that a couple times (tonight). That’s why they are what they are. That wasn’t them two years ago and it is them now, and that’s what makes them the champions.”
The Celtics played Jaylen Brown for the full first quarter for only the fifth time this season after doing so with Tatum out on Wednesday. Al Horford also logged the opening 12 minutes before he’ll take five days off including Saturday, when he’ll inevitably miss the Grizzlies game. Brown hit his first four shots, one inside, another from mid-range and a pair of threes to push Boston ahead 16-10 early. As the benches began entering, Brown took on the Damian Lillard matchup, aggressively guarding him in the back-court and knocking him off the ball before Giannis Antetokounmpo bounced the ball past Andre Jackson Jr. and out-of-bounds.
Boston went 0-for-12 from three in the second, their only quarter this year without a make from three. Tatum took over on the ball and slid a bounce pass to Neemias Queta for a dunk, scored twice inside and found Sam Hauser for a mid-ranger. The Celtics shot 13 more threes to start the game, but Milwaukee matched them 7-7 to start the night in only the sixth game of this year where Boston finished below 33% from three, per The Athletic.
“I thought our defense was tremendous throughout the entire game. Usually when you go through lulls offensively, at some points your defense cracks and I thought tonight it didn’t, mainly because I thought we got great shots,” Joe Mazzulla said. “We’re breaking down the layers of their defense. I thought our defense kept us in it and I thought we continued to fight for good looks throughout the night.”
For only the eighth time this year, the Celtics trailed at half after the Bucks’ 17-8, Antetokounmpo led charge into half. He averaged 34.4 points per game on 56.3% shooting in the three matchups between the teams this year. It wasn’t enough again, even combined with Lillard’s 31 points on 12-of-25 shooting. Boston didn’t make a three in 12 tries through that second, but only lost the frame, 30-24, to stay within four points at half.
The hostilities between Antetokounmpo and Brown from the last loss, and Brown’s baskets, continued into the third quarter after Brown’s 5-of-8 opening run. Brown glided past Antetokounmpo with a tight crossover for a finish. Brown flashed the too small sign and picked up Antetokounmpo full court, bumping into him before the official Ben Taylor stepped in with a technical foul.
“I thought that was great,” Mazzulla said. “I thought the elbow to the face unlocked Jaylen a little bit. I thought the technical was tremendous from Jaylen and from there on in. It just brought out an edge in us and we were able to feed off it.”
Milwaukee had won 9-of-11 prior to Friday, finding its mid-range attack, a starting lineup with Jackson Jr. that boasted more defensive flexibility and shooting into second units with AJ Green. Lillard and Antetokounmpo have slowly played off each other more. The Bucks, theoretically, match Boston’s one-two punch with inside and outside scoring while Khris Middleton added to their shot creation and three-point ability in his return from ankle surgery on Friday. They rode that to a lead late in the third before Sam Hauser extended his run of three straight threes into the fourth, beating the Bucks up the floor on a night where Payton Pritchard didn’t have it.
Neemias Queta played 11 minutes that the Celtics won by two after not playing against Detroit, switching comfortably to the perimeter and forcing Lillard to shoot a three off the side of the back board. After Bobby Portis, Gary Trent Jr. and Giannis delivered a four-point lead in the final frame, Hauser blocked Antetokounmpo, Boston won a challenge to get the ball back and Tatum hit Jrue Holiday in the pocket with his left hand before scoring four straight to take the lead.
He fired passes out of the paint from crowds, and with a three-point lead after Antetokounmpo shockingly took a three early in the shot clock down one with 95 seconds left, Tatum lined up Brook Lopez on a possession he’d stepped-back on countless times before. This time, he tossed the ball back to Holiday, the former Buck who changed everything in Boston, who floated it high for two.
“It doesn’t matter,” Mazzulla said. “(Tatum and Brown) are gonna be out there and it’s their job to deliver for us. They do a tremendous job with their flexibility You don’t want to be tied down to, ‘I need to do this in order to be good or I have to do that.’ They’re just like, ‘I’ll just do what we need to do to win and what makes the most sense and when it’s my time, we’re gonna execute, whether it’s offensively or defensively.’ So they’re both very open-minded to the process of winning and they’ll do what it takes and it’s a credit to them.”
