BSJ Game Report: Milwaukee Bucks 127, Boston Celtics 121 - Celtics stall late, but may end up winners regardless

Everything you need to know about the Boston Celtics' loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, with BSJ insight and analysis:

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics fought hard throughout this game, taking some runs from the Bucks but never breaking. They got contributions from bench and G League players and were carried by a Jaylen Brown triple-double and Marcus Smart’s hot shooting. In the end, Milwaukee buckled down and the Celtics made some tough mistakes, and the Bucks ran away with the game in the final few minutes. 

Box Score

HEADLINES

Seriously, what an effort: I’ll get into this more later, but the biggest headline coming out of this was that Boston, without Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, and Robert Williams, had a chance to win this game against a full-strength Bucks team (I refuse to believe Grayson Allen would have made things any different for Milwaukee). I will gladly take into account the natural complacency a team like Milwaukee will exhibit against a shorthanded team, but they tried to put this game away earlier and Boston refused to quit. That's meaningful. 

Jaylen Brown’s triple-double: I wrote pregame: “Brown is going to be double teamed and blitzed like crazy. It might be a little more than he’s used to. Will he go too hard for his own shot and try to split the double teams, or is he going to bide his time and wait to strike against more advantageous alignments?” He did the latter, mostly, and moved the ball well to notch 11 assists. 

Standings watch: There's a little more clarity starting to creep in after Boston and Philadelphia both lost. They are tied in the loss column with one game to play for Boston and two for Philly. A Boston win Sunday or a loss by Philadelphia locks them into the fourth seed and Boston no worse than the third. Milwaukee just needs to beat Detroit and Cleveland to close out the season. 

TURNING POINT

Boston led 121-118 with 2:27 left but didn’t score again. Milwaukee closed the game on a 9-0 run. Boston missed 5 shots in that stretch and turned the ball over once. 

“They made some good defensive reads, some good plays,” Smart said. “Missed some shots. That's part of the game. Obviously we missed Jayson out there, Al, two big shot-makers for us, would add more firepower for us. It happens, it’s just part of the game. Gotta bounce back. It’s over with, just gotta make sure it doesn’t happen again." 

SIX UP

Jaylen Brown: 22 points, 11 assists, 10 rebounds for Brown, along with a steal and a block. He was asked to do a lot and he mostly delivered. The end of game misses and turnover will probably haunt him because I’m sure he would have loved to be the guy to lead Boston to a win over Milwaukee. Still, a monster game from Brown.

Marcus Smart: Smart’s third quarter was especially great. He finished with 29 points and 7 assists, but 14 points and 4 assists came in a third quarter that saw Boston erase half of Milwaukee’s 10 point halftime lead.

Daniel Theis: Theis did the bulk of his damage in the third as well, dropping 15 points in the quarter. Again, I’ll state the obvious, he’s not Rob, but he’s filling in nicely. 

Derrick White: The hot shooting was certainly contagious, with White shooting 6-13 overall, 4-8 from 3, and 3-3 from the line on his way to a 19 point, 6 rebound, 3 assist night. 

Sam Hauser: He might be passing Aaron Nesmith in the pecking order. Hauser was 3-4 from deep, dropping those high rainbow treys on his way to an 11 point, 4 rebound game. 

Payton Pritchard: 12 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal, and a block for Pritchard. I wish I could tell you that block was a big, dramatic “GET THAT SHOT OUTTA HERE” kinda thing, but it was really more a strip of a shot on the way up. Anyway, Pritchard was big in the fourth quarter, which is where 7 of his points came. He scored the first 5 points of the quarter for Boston as part of a 7-0 run that briefly gave them the lead. 

TWO DOWN

Grant Williams: I think Grant is great in his role this season and maybe prone to struggling when he’s asked to do a little too much. He did other things in this game, and did a fine job on Giannis Antetokounmpo defensively in stretches. I just need to see his shots fall in these big games. 

Aaron Nesmith: Another oh-fer from deep (0-3) and this season is just not going to bring Nesmith any level of consistency. This is going to be a big summer for him. 

TOP PLAYS

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET TOMORROW

- This result is fine

The Celtics really were in a no-lose situation here. The second seed would be fine to me, but I’m also fine with someone else having to answer the Brooklyn question. The fourth seed can go to Philadelphia, which has to deal with the Tyrese Maxey vaccination question for the series. 

Boston falling to third and drawing the Chicago Bulls in the first round would be a fitting reward for this team having battled back. 

This seems to be the most likely path, but it’s not a given. Ja Morant’s knee is progressing to a point where Memphis might want to give him a regular-season tuneup before the playoffs. He’s certainly going to be on a minutes restriction and they won’t take any chances with him, but any game Morant plays in is a dangerous one for the opponents.

At the same time, Udoka seems poised to play his full squad one more time. 

“Three games in 13 days, you’ve got quite a bit of break time there. So we still want to get them a run and not have a week and a half off with no basketball,” Udoka said. “Obviously we can try to emulate some in practice, but that live action is good. But also being cautious. We’re still playing for something—seeding, standings. We’ll see what Memphis does being set at 2 already and we’ll determine that over the next two days.”

There will be nothing wrong with getting his guys real minutes in the regular-season finale with nearly a full week of rest following. They’ll probably take Monday and maybe even Tuesday off before going through three good practices before their first-round opponent.

And if that first-round opponent is the Bulls, then maybe they can grab some more rest on the back end of that series as well if they can make it a short one.