Final: Celtics 139, Bucks 118 - Tatum goes off in 3rd, C's shooting returns

Game 34: Celtics (-5.5) vs. Milwaukee Bucks, 5:00 p.m., TD Garden, ABC

Injuries: 

Boston: Danilo Gallinari 

Milwaukee: Khris Middleton (knee)

Bucks projected starters: Grayson Allen, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Brook Lopez, Jevon Carter, Jrue Holiday

Refs: Josh Tiven (#58), Jacyn Goble (#68), Phenizee Ransom (#70)

Things I’m looking for:

- National TV effort: Whatever the Celtics have looked like over the past couple of weeks, I think we can expect them to shake off the worst of it for a stage like this. I know, I know… the Warriors game was on ABC as well, but this is a little different. I fully expect a more consistent, top-to-bottom effort… unless…

- Doing too much: They flip over the edge of maximum effort and spill into doing too much … which we’ve seen before. If you’ve seen Top Gun 2 (spoiler alert), the speech to Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and others is “the threshold is 10. Not 10.1. Not 10.2.” Mach 10 is perfectly fine for Christmas Day. Don’t be like Maverick and push past it because it’ll all blow up.

- Walling off Giannis: Can the Celtics do what every team says they have to do and wall Giannis off and force him to take more jumpers than usual. The game plan is the same, but each year is different. It’s a little harder to do in some respects because Giannis continues to grow as a player. It’s a little easier to do in some respects because he’s more willing to take jumpers than he ever has. 

Follow along below or in the comments during the game, chime in, and let’s have fun.