MILWAUKEE -- Regular season games will never fully replicate postseason intensity, but what we saw Thursday night in Milwaukee, at least from a Celtics perspective, is about as close as you are going to get within an 82-game slate.
Kyrie Irving played a season-high for regulation 41 minutes. Al Horford was close behind at 37 minutes. Brad Stevens managed his stars minutes like it was a playoff matchup and, with both guys coming off eight full days of rest, it’s hard to blame him for using this as a measuring stick game. He needed to see where his team was at, and the results were relatively encouraging on a night his team fell 98-97 to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Still, like any playoff game, the little things matter more than ever in crunch time and Thursday was a perfect example of that on both ends of the floor for Boston. Three pivotal plays changed the game in the final 35 seconds of the game and prevented the Celtics from pulling off a nine-point, fourth-quarter comeback and escaping with a win on a night where they shot a season-low 38 percent from the field.
What did the Celtics learn from these sequences? How will it impact this team moving forward as the postseason approaches? Let’s take a look at the lessons learned from a tough defeat for Boston as they waved goodbye to any lingering hope at the one seed with the defeat.
Play 1: Khris Middleton makes uncontested 3 at the top of the key with 35 seconds remaining.
? Khris Middleton ?
This shot put the Bucks up for good. Kyrie missed a tough runner at the buzzer.pic.twitter.com/Pi7fRfvKVZ
— Sporting News NBA (@sn_nba) February 22, 2019
I can see why Marcus Morris was a little upset pic.twitter.com/MiSt1lWiFI
— Dan Greenberg (@StoolGreenie) February 22, 2019