Final: Milwaukee Bucks 117, Boston Celtics 113 - Celtics fall apart late, Bucks grab Christmas win

Game 33
Boston Celtics (16-16, 7-10 away, T-7th East) vs. Milwaukee Bucks (21-13, 11-5 home, 3rd East)
Fiserve Forum
2:30 PM - ABC

PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS

Boston: Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Romeo Lanford, Robert Williams

Milwaukee: Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jordan Nwora, DeMarcus Cousins

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

- Celtics in Health and Safety Protocols: Bruno Fernando, Enes Freedom, Sam Hauser, Justin Jackson, C.J. Miles, Aaron Nesmith, Grant Williams, Dennis Schröder, Josh Richardson. Schröder went in today. 

“It's somewhat expected now,” Ime Udoka said. “Over the last few days, you know, a lot of obviously positives popping up across the league and so kind of holding your breath at the time and I guess the one positive would be there's only one guy this time instead of three or four last few days. But it's obviously a tough one losing Dennis in the health and safety protocols and we're working through that.”

- Juancho Hernangomez, Jabari Parker, and Brodric Thomas are out of protocols and available.

- Al Horford is out of protocols but out for added conditioning. 

- Donte DiVincenzo has cleared protocols for Milwaukee and is available today

- Brook Lopez remains out after back surgery

- This is an NBA belt title match (read about the NBA belt here)

- Milwaukee is favored by 7.5

THREE THINGS TO WATCH FOR

1. How much does Giannis have? He’s fresh out of Health and Safety protocols, so there's at least some question about how his legs will be in his first game. The Celtics will be hoping for a little bit of a conditioning issue because without Al Horford, the Celtics will have a very tough time guarding him. 

2. The Middleton factor: Boston kept the Celtics killer in check in the last game. They can’t do that two games in a row, can they? 

3. Bench production: Milwaukee is now one of the healthiest rosters in the league. Can the ragtag Celtics bench cobble enough points together to compete with the nearly full strength champs?

GAME THREAD

Stick around for more comments below as the game goes on. Feel free to add your two cents in the comments.