The Boston Celtics delivered yet another worthy next-man-up effort against Milwaukee, playing with just one healthy point guard on the roster who spent most of this past season with Boston’s Gatorade League affiliate.
They made shots down the stretch, mixed in with an occasional defensive play but it just wasn’t enough as the Milwaukee Bucks snapped Boston’s six-game winning streak with a 106-102 victory.
Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 24 points.
A Jayson Tatum dunk cut Milwaukee’s lead to 103-100 with 22.1 seconds to play, leading to a Milwaukee time-out.
Bucks All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo made a pair of free throws with 13.1 seconds to play, leading to another Celtics time-out.
Coming out of the time-out, Tatum, who had 20 points, stepped out of bounds with 9.2 seconds to play which all but sealed the Milwaukee win.
The loss leaves Boston (53-24) two games behind Toronto (55-22) which lost at Cleveland with both teams facing off in Toronto Wednesday night.
Boston Celtics
Boston played without Terry Rozier, whose left ankle injury makes him questionable for Wednesday night’s game against the Raptors.
He joined a long list of injured Celtics guards, leaving head coach Brad Stevens little choice but to start Kadeem Allen, selected in last June’s NBA draft with the 53rd overall pick by Boston who was signed to a two-way contract by the Celtics.
Throughout the game, Boston simply failed to get that necessary stop or clutch shot to go down in order to swing the game’s momentum in the Celtics’ favor.
Horford drained a 3-pointer with about two minutes to play to make it a 99-95 game.
After a Milwaukee miss, Marcus Morris did the same at the other end which prevented Boston from putting the necessary pressure on the Bucks needed in order to rally for the win.
Boston stayed a handful of possessions away from getting fully back into the game, but too many missed shots and too many missed defensive assignments led to a missed opportunity as Boston’s six game winning streak came to an end.
But the Celtics continued to battle back, with Horford converting a traditional 3-point play that made it a 90-87 game, only for Antetokounmpo to score two of his game-high 29 points to push Milwaukee’s lead back to five points.
Boston came right back with a to make it a 92-89 game following a Jaylen Brown drive to the basket but could not inch any closer.
Despite being even more depleted than usual, Boston opened with a strong start by outscoring Milwaukee 18-9 before ending the first quarter with a 31-26 lead.
But the Bucks turned things around in the second quarter, going on a 16-4 run to lead 53-45 before taking a 58-56 lead into the half following Tatum’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer to end the second.