BSJ Game Report: Bucks 101, Celtics 89 - C's offense stalls against tough Milwaukee defense

Everything you need to know about the Boston Celtics loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 1 of their semifinal series, with BSJ insight and analysis. 

IN A NUTSHELL

This was a physical, defensive fight, unlike what the Celtics saw in Brooklyn. The Bucks did what they always do to opponents and walled the Celtics off from the rim. Boston played right into Milwaukee’s hands and very willingly took quick 3-pointers early and not hitting a whole lot of anything. They finished the game shooting 33.3%, their worst outing of the season. Defensively, their plan against Giannis Antetokounmpo backfired as he picked them apart with his passing (12 assists). 

HEADLINES

Worst. Shooting. Ever. Pick your basketball cliche for bad shooting. They all apply. Some of it was just bad luck, some of it was great defense. Either way, the Celtics aren’t going to get anywhere with their offense stalled like this. 

A football game in tank tops: This game might as well have been coached by Bill Belichick and Matt LaFleur. The Celtics have prided themselves on being a physical team, but the Bucks came in and turned Game 1 into a slugfest. The result was a frustrated Celtics team that let the contact, and lack of calls, get into their heads a little too much. 

Home court lost. One of the big narratives heading into the playoffs was how Milwaukee might have erred when they willingly gave up home court in the second round in an effort to avoid the Brooklyn Nets. They responded to that by immediately taking homecourt advantage back with this win. 

TURNING POINT

Despite everything, Boston was still keeping the game somewhat close, with deficits somewhere around 6 and 8 points. The lead was 8 after a pair of Derrick White free throws at the 10:28 mark of the fourth, but Milwaukee went on a 12-5 run to extend the lead to 17, their biggest lead of the night, with 7:38 to play.

ONE UP

Al Horford: I’m looking for a bright spot in this game, and Horford was at least able to stick to his game better than most. 12 points on 4-9 shooting from 3 (4-11 overall), 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks on the afternoon for Horford, who was also one of the primary defenders on Antetokounmpo. Giannis shot poorly (9-25) and he gave the ball up, which means Horford did his job. The rest of the Celtics need to do theirs. 

SIX DOWN

Jayson Tatum: This is mostly because of his continued interactions with the officials. He was begging for a tech tonight (which he didn’t get), and it just seemed like his frustration over the non-calls was a factor in some of his shooting. 

“We’re guarding in a way and things are getting called maybe not as evenly at times, so we’ve just got to play through that,” Ime Udoka said. “It’s the playoffs, so we’ve got to understand the physicality and the level is going to go up.”

Jaylen Brown: One of his worst games in a long time. 12 points on 4-13 shooting (3-9 3pt, and two of those came a little too late to matter), 4 assists, 2 steals. But it’s the 7 turnovers, 4 of which were live-ball, leading to 9 Bucks points, that were killers. 

“They’re getting out and running,” Udoka said. “28 points in transition, 27 off our turnovers is way too high, especially when they score one-on-one, so got to be stronger with the ball, understand what they’re gonna be.”

Not much more to say other than he needs to be better. I’m not sure if the hamstring had anything to do with his performance, but he did have a wild putback dunk so I’d lean towards it just being a bad game. 

Marcus Smart: He needs to be a little more composed than this. He was a little too willing to take some early 3-pointers. He played some great defense and he did have 6 assists, but we did get some shades of old Marcus the shooting guard. 

Derrick White: He finally hit a couple of 3-pointers, which was great. But his first-half stint was rough. He looked lost for a long time before starting to settle into the game a little. He recovered well, but the first half might have been his worst stint as a Celtic. 

Payton Pritchard: This was a tough time to see the shot stop falling like it had been. He shot 2-8 from 3 in the game, but he was 0-4 to start the fourth quarter, and to make things worse, Milwaukee found a way to get points after each of those misses. 

Daniel Theis: It’s funny how he went from playing well to playing less than 5 minutes in Game 1 and looking lost. 

TOP PLAYS

TWO TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- Series aren’t won in Game 1: The Bucks did what they had to do and took home court right away. Good for them. Now the most important game in this series becomes Game 2 and salvaging a split here in Boston so they can go to Milwaukee and take back home court with at least a split there. 

“I think we're alright. I think that we know that we can play a lot better basketball than we played today,” Brown said after the game. “For whatever reason, we were a little bit sped up, missed a lot of shots. But defensively we gave up 100 points, offensively we got to find ways to be better, take care of the ball. We turned it over a lot. We gotta get back to doing what we do best. So in hindsight, we still have our confidence, we still ready, so we'll get back to Celtic basketball and let's get ready to play next game.”

We’re going to see what this team is really made of on Tuesday night. They have to match the physicality of this series and execute precisely on offense. The Bucks did everything they wanted in this game. Boston has to do that in Game 2. 

- DON’T SETTLE FOR 3-POINTERS! It’s been a while since I’ve said this, but the Celtics need to be better about the kinds of 3’s they take. 

The Bucks are going to give up 3-pointers. The Celtics can get them basically whenever they want. They don’t need to settle for quick 3’s like this one after just one pass.

Upfake that, drive it, see if there's a lob possible. If not, kick it to Smart and he can drive and the second attack can get Boston another easy look from 3 on a kick out to Horford or Tatum. 

I’m not going to cry too much about the 3-point shooting. 50 of them is too many, but not by a lot. I’m not concerned by the volume of them, it’s more about the quality of them. But the quality of them can improve by passing up on a few of them and looking for better scoring opportunities. 

The Celtics need to make Milwaukee work hard on defense. They can’t let the Bucks off the hook with one-pass shots. Make Milwaukee defend drives and make decisions. Even if they result in stops, the extra 10 seconds of defending can have an impact on the other end. 

It’s just a matter of discipline. The Celtics lost some of that in Game 1. They have to regain that focus for Game 2.