It’s been three months since the Celtics' title hopes came to an end in the Eastern Conference Finals in the Orlando bubble but it almost felt like we were seeing another re-run of Boston's routine collapses against the Heat in the early stages of the fourth quarter on Wednesday night. Some of the names and the opponent (Milwaukee) had changed, but the key players remained the same for the C's. Boston saw a 17-point lead vanish in just nine minutes as the Bucks opened up the final period on a 31-14 run behind red-hot shooting from Giannis Antetokokunmpo and company.
As the Bucks caught fire, Boston’s offense was simply stalling when it mattered most, just like we saw time and time again against Miami and Toronto back in September. At one point, the Celtics had scored a mere eight points in seven minutes, opening the door for Milwaukee to steal a win in spite of a sensational second and third quarter by the C’s.
The Bucks rally set up a level playing field heading into crunch time. The Bucks took their first lead in the second half (115-113) on a Giannis Antetokounmpo postup with 3:26 remaining in the fourth quarter. With no Kemba Walker in the fold and Tristan Thompson at his minutes limit (22), the Celtics were going to need to rely on some new personnel (Jeff Teague) and improved poise against an improved Bucks team who had added some important firepower of their own for these spots in Jrue Holiday (25 points).
The headlines and highlights from this game will feature Jayson Tatum’s banked 3 that held up as a game-winner in a 122-121 victory once Giannis Antetokounmpo bricked his second free throw with 0.4 seconds remaining. However, the bigger story in this one was a different Celtics team emerging in crunch time in response to a furious Bucks rally. Instead of getting down on themselves or desperate with their decision-making, the C’s young core showed promising composure, the beginning of perhaps a crucial step for this young roster.
“You’re going to be in those situations,” Brad Stevens said of Boston holding on late for the win. “That was not a trend for us the first couple of weeks in the bubble. That was something we were usually pretty good in fourth quarters, at least at the start of last year we had our moments where we struggled. You’re going to be in games like that, and when Giannis hits those threes – those pull-up threes and those catch-and-shoot threes – they’re going to make a comeback. We’re certainly going to out-run him on those, so credit him for that, credit them for that, and we hung in there, took a good hit and kept ticking. It was good.”
A second look at the final three minutes of the game (nine points scored for the Celtics) showed a constant theme that was missing for a lot of last year’s postseason: Quality offensive possessions involving the right people.
A sampling of those possessions
2:58: Jayson Tatum makes a driving pullup from 13-feet over Giannis after plenty of ball movement and drive and kicks leads to a Tatum drive.
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) December 24, 2020
Bucks switching PnR, Jaylen sells the gather and pull-up well, Giannis bites, explodes downhill. Jrue makes a nice effort to avoid the seal and rotate at the rim, but nice balance and some slight contortion to avoid the contest and finish. Awesome bucket pic.twitter.com/XVzveLXu75
— Max Carlin (@maxacarlin) December 24, 2020
JAYSON TATUM pic.twitter.com/tssjdSZf2P
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) December 24, 2020