The Bucks ruled out Giannis Antetokounmpo with a bum hamstring Wednesday morning in Boston and looked dead on arrival that night at the Garden.
The Celtics led by 11 within minutes and 21 in the fourth quarter after Payton Pritchard splashed an above-the-break 3 to the delight of a sold-out crowd. Pritchard had already set Bucks instigator Patrick Beverley on fire in the second quarter, scoring or assisting on 15 straight points after Beverley had gestured Boston was “too small” defensively.
A big Pritchard performance is as sure a sign as any these days that the Celtics will hit cruise control en route to a blowout win. But then, Milwaukee fought fire with fire — and a familiar formula.
Zone defense, hot 3-point shooting and a surprise standout.
The Heat infamously followed that recipe to an upset in last year’s Eastern Conference Finals and a near upset in 2022. The Celtics survived Wednesday, 122-119, something they may not have done were Antetokounmpo available. The Bucks rode a 21-6 run in the fourth quarter to cut their deficit to three at 2:56 left, then closed the gap to one possession twice more before getting closed out themselves.
Most Celtics veterans dismissed the impact of Milwaukee’s zone, saying they simply missed open shots against it.
“We got some good looks,” Jayson Tatum said of the zone post-game. “I say it all the time: it’s a make-or-miss league, right?”
“I thought we had it pretty good tonight,” Jaylen Brown added. “I thought that we got to our spots, we took our time.”
The raw numbers offer a lukewarm endorsement of the stars’ assessment. Overall, the Celtics shot 2-of-10 against the zone in the fourth quarter and coughed up three turnovers. On those turnovers, Al Horford got stripped on a late, unplanned post-up, Brown let the ball slip on a drive to beat the shot clock and Kristaps Porzingis chucked the ball out of bounds after Derrick White unexpectedly relocated across the court.
Celtics survive late scare from Bucks for seventh straight win
Those mistakes were all preceded by late-developing action; the Celtics dilly-dallying or simply taking far too long to chart their path through the zone before finally attacking it.
As Boston's offense stalled out, Damian Lillard (11 points, 3 assists) and Bobby Portis Jr. powered Milwaukee back to life in the fourth quarter. Portis Jr. had what can only be described out-of-body basketball experience, scoring 14 points and snatching seven rebounds in the final minutes; numbers that matched his per-game averages for the season.
Now, offensive eruptions like the one Portis had will happen from time to time. In Tatum's make-or-miss league, randomness is always lurking around the next corner, quarter or series to upend expectation. The Bucks know all too well how a hot-shooting bench forward can change their fate in Boston. (See: Grant "Curry" Williams in Game 7 of their shared 2022 second-round playoff series.)
Back to the Celtics.
Of their eight misses versus zone in the fourth quarter, four were wide-open 3s, most on the wing or out of the corners. That's mostly pure, no-good, very bad luck. Pritchard, Derrick White and Porzingis all misfired despite ample time and space, though their inability to force errant shots on the other end hurt more than their own misses.
The Bucks shot 56.5% overall in the fourth quarter, allowing themselves to routinely jog back on defense, where they sprinkled occasional ball pressure and double teams into their sticky zone and even flipped back to traditional man-to-man.
"The toughest part was we weren't getting any stops and we were allowing them to set their defense," Tatum said. "They got hot, they made some shots. Credit to them."
Milwaukee's initial zone possessions on defense all immediately followed made baskets and baited the Celtics into a couple bad mid-range misses, then Horford's turnover. After a rare Portis miss, Tatum finally stopped the Celtics' hemorrhaging at 2:06 left, driving at Milwaukee's man-to-man defense and drawing two foul shots, which he drained.
Ahead by five, Boston survived another 3-point miss, this time from Lillard, and Tatum cooked Malik Beasley off the bounce again for a layup on the next possession. Tatum's downhill drives embodied what Brown identified as a key post-game versus the frisky, undermanned Bucks.
"We just have to match their physicality a little bit more, getting used to how they're calling the game and the whistle. We feel like we're the better team," Brown said. "But if teams are trying to out-physical us, we gotta be ready to take on that each and every night out."
Another key? Brown's free throws.
Brown went 0-for-2 at the line with above the 3-minute mark, then hit two foul shots while leading 116-114 at 0:20 to play. More late-game Brown misses will lead to more trouble down the road, maybe even defeat. But his final makes Wednesday provided enough breathing room for the Celtics to finish the Bucks, despite their offensive miscues.
So yes, in concert with Milwaukee's hot shooting and their own cold touch, the Bucks' zone defense tripped up the Celtics. It briefly dragged their offense into the mud, then prompted poor shots and worse luck. The Celtics can initiate their offense faster to fix this and practice more against zone variations. More 3-pointers, especially after the corner, will fall.
In the meantime, Brown believes Wednesday's tight win will ultimately benefit the Celtics; a rare test of their mettle and late-game offense before the playoffs are sure to stress them again with that old familiar formula.
"It’s something we’re going to look at," Pritchard said, "and we’ll get better at.”
