Joe Mazzulla cut the question off. Before Wednesday’s game against the Bucks, a question that described the Celtics’ double-digit game lead atop the Eastern Conference as “comfortable.”
“No such thing as comfortable in the NBA,” Mazzulla interrupted.
Then, the on-court version of that played out.
The Celtics may have gotten, in fact, too comfortable on Wednesday night against the Bucks, who didn’t have star Giannis Antetekounmpo. They built an 18-point lead entering the fourth and led by 21 before nearly blowing it away. The Bucks stormed back and created some anxious moments inside TD Garden late but the Celtics stayed poised as they survived for their seventh straight victory with a 122-119 win.
The victory pushed the Celtics’ commanding lead atop the Eastern Conference standings to 11 games over the Bucks with 13 to go. There aren’t many opportunities left for the C’s to extract valuable lessons or simulate playoff situations, and it initially didn’t look like they’d get either on Wednesday with Antetekounmpo back home in Milwaukee.
But after mostly blowing teams out over the last two months, the Celtics embraced a rare chance to play a tight, pressure-packed situation to practice their late-game and clutch time execution. This time, they passed the test.
“There’s gonna be games like that,” Brown said. “There’s gonna be games where you miss shots, games where it might not go your way or the other team is making a ridiculous amount of shots and you’ve got to figure out ways to win. I thought we handled it well.”
Jayson Tatum scored 31 points, Derrick White added 23 and Payton Pritchard had a monster performance off the bench with 19 points as the Celtics controlled most of the game. But after leading by 21 early in the fourth, they faced problems against the Bucks’ zone. The Celtics manufactured just nine points over a nearly 10-minute span, allowing the visitors to claw back behind Damian Lillard and Bobby Portis.
Portis nearly became an unlikely hero off the bench as he scored eight consecutive points to bring the Bucks within three with 2:56 remaining, That stretch was sandwiched around two free throw misses from Brown, which caused some nail-biting moments in the Garden. But facing sudden adversity, they responded accordingly.
Tatum – who had not taken a shot in the third quarter – scored his first points of the second half when he started attacking the basket. His two free throws followed by a layup restored order in the building.
“That was big time,” said Mazzulla, who added that the Celtics got back to the proper spacing against Milwaukee’s zone and praised Tatum’s decision-making in those moments. “I thought Jayson’s poise down the stretch of getting to the free throw line, getting to the spot he wanted was a key to the game. That, and then our defensive intensity as a team.”
Kristaps Porzingis’ putback dunk with 1:12 to go gave the Celtics a seven-point lead before they took one last shot from the Bucks. Lillard drilled a step-back 3-pointer before Portis’ floater with 33 seconds left cut it back to two. But on the next possession, Brown was fouled and he found redemption by hitting both free throws.
Lillard missed a layup on the next play, and the Celtics escaped. After facing criticism for poor late-game execution earlier this month, the C’s executed down the stretch in a rare clutch situation.
“We hadn’t been in one in a little while there, and just a good learning experience,” Mazzulla said.
Pritchard was responsible for giving the Celtics a big early spark that helped them gain control, and it was inspired by a perceived slight.
Bucks guard – and notorious agitator – Patrick Beverley appeared to give the “too small” gesture to teammate Luke Kornet on a play early in the second quarter. Prtichard admitted he took it personally and that it lit a fuse under him.
The Celtics had a five-point lead before Pritchard took complete control with the second unit. He scored or assisted on 15 consecutive points for the Celtics and 18 of 21 points, a stretch that included an impressive step-back jumper. On one play, he also flew in for an offensive rebound over Brook Lopez and drew a foul on the Bucks big man, which generated a standing ovation from the Garden crowd.
“Just a winning play,” Pritchard said. “He’s a 7-footer and I’m 6-foot – little in NBA standards. I don’t know. Just a competitor.”
The Celtics took an 18-point lead during that stretch and then a commanding halftime lead before Lillard made a couple of 3-pointers in the opening minutes of the third quarter that cut Milwaukee’s deficit to five. But the C’s responded well again to that brief adversity, using strong defense throughout the third quarter to restore their lead back to 18 entering the fourth.
Their offense suddenly went silent, but they found the critical answers when they needed to, another sign of growth for this year’s squad.
“Last year I feel like this type of game could have slipped away at the end but we regrouped and finished it,” Pritchard said.
Though the victory gave the Celtics some valuable experience in certain situations, Mazzulla didn’t take much stock from it for a potential playoff series down the line. The Bucks didn’t have Antetokounmpo, and the Celtics were missing Jrue Holiday and Sam Hauser.
“I don’t want to overthink,” Mazzulla said. “Nothing is guaranteed in life. We may see them, they may see us, we may not. You never know what’s going to happen. I know both teams are developing an identity, there’s obviously a DNA there that both teams have, but you don’t want to overthink things, and you don’t take anything for granted.”
