Celtics come back to topple Bucks 113-107 as Giannis Antetokounmpo scores 43
Playing their first game since Giannis Antetokounmpo called out the team’s competitive fire, the Milwaukee Bucks brought that competitive fire against the defending champion Boston Celtics on Sunday afternoon at Fiserv Forum, but unfortunately they ran out of offense in a 113-107 loss.
When asked if the team met his challenge of being competitive, Antetokounmpo said "At times, yes we did. Not for 48 minutes. But at times we were very competitive."
The Bucks had a hot-shooting first half to lead by as many as 17 and had a 69-58 lead at the break, but they scored just 15 points in the third quarter as their shooting went ice cold. The Celtics scored 29 points in the period (led by Jayson Tatum's 11) to take a 87-84 lead into the third quarter. Though the Bucks would lead again briefly in the fourth, the tide had turned and Milwaukee couldn't find enough buckets to overtake the Celtics late.
Milwaukee dropped to 2-8 on the year while Boston improved to 9-2.
"I think we are trending to the right direction," Antetokounmpo said. "Obviously it doesn't show. But I think slowly, slowly we're playing better. Guys are competing. They competed tonight. So, slowly, slowly we are figuring out who we are."
Third quarter key to Celtics victory, slow Damian Lillard
Milwaukee came out on fire offensively, making its first five shots in taking a 16-2 lead in the opening minutes – a hot streak it rode to a 17-point lead at one point in the first half and a 69-58 halftime lead.
But the game turned in the third quarter, as the Celtics had a 9-0 run to begin the period and eventually wrested control of the game with a 14-1 run that gave them a 72-70 lead.
“We played a great first 24 minutes, two quarters, and then unfortunately coming out of halftime we laid an egg,” Brook Lopez said.
Bucks head coach Doc Rivers felt the aggressiveness of the game flipped immediately coming out of the break, and called a timeout 80 seconds into the quarter.
The Celtics never ran away with the game, but they held the Bucks to just 15 points on 6-of-21 shooting, including a 1-for-9 mark from behind the three-point line in the third.
“That’s a popular thing around the league, is like make them call the first timeout, assert yourself and establish yourself,” Damian Lillard said. “And I thought they did that in the third and we allowed them to get themselves to get going and kind of get right back into the game pretty quick and we was in a dogfight from there.”
Boston didn't exactly tear it up – the Celtics scored 29 points – but it was enough to turn the tide and level the contest. And at that point, they just had more options on offense to get tough baskets as the Bucks were still without all-star Khris Middleton and starting shooting guard Gary Trent Jr. due to injury.
“I just thought, you know, I don’t know – I thought we lost our pace," Rivers said. "I called a timeout I think on the second play, because you could see it. We came out flat. That happens. I don’t know why. I wish all knew why. And they took advantage of it.”
BOX SCORE: Celtics 113, Bucks 107
The Celtics seemingly have an endless supply of length and strong defensive players, beginning with starting guards Derrick White and Jrue Holiday and forwards Brown and Jayson Tatum, and they made it very difficult on Bucks point guard Damian Lillard to find a rhythm offensively.
“They did a great job of him, top-locking him, denying him the ball," Rivers said. "They switched on him a lot. And that’s what we gotta get better at getting to the next action to help Dame. I didn’t think we helped Dame enough today.”
Lillard scored 14 points on 4-of-15 shooting, including a 1-for-8 mark from behind the three-point line.
The one three he made was an off-balance shot-clock bailout, as he badly missed wide open, set threes in the second half. He had six assists and played spirited defense, but the Celtics' sticky perimeter defense made it hard for him to shake loose.
“I think it’s important we all keep moving,” Lopez said of how the Bucks can help free Lillard up in such instances. “Doc keep mentioning pace – keep moving with pace. Run into our actions whatever we do. Make them guard and be a threat. We can’t be sluggish running into stuff, whatever it is and come off like we’re clearly not going to do anything. Obviously that’s so easy to guard and then we end up just throwing back to Dame like ‘go do something for us, go score for us.’ We can’t play like that. We all have to be aggressive, we all have to play with pace, we all have to be threats.”
For his part, Lillard felt there were things he could improve on as an individual within the team construct of secondary actions.
"In those situations I gotta be a better screener," he said. "I gotta move around. Just find the action. I gotta find a way to not let that just be something that they do hard and then kind of trip me up in the game. So, like Doc said, I just think we gotta have a plan for that so that not only I know what the next thing to do is but we’re all connected in it so it’s not just me running around just because but when it happens I know what I’m doing to free myself and to come back to the ball or come back to the action and everybody else does as well.”
Boston didn't have an answer for Antetokounmpo, who scored 43 points on 29 shots – but for too long of stretches in the second half the Bucks went without consistent offense. Starting guard Andre Jackson Jr. scored one point on 0-of-3 shooting, Taurean Prince scored all nine of his points in the first quarter and then missed his last three shots over the last three quarters. Brook Lopez scored six points.
Bobby Portis Jr. (15 points), AJ Green (12) and Pat Connaughton (7) combined to hit 6 three-pointers off the bench, but it wasn't enough.
“We can’t sustain," Rivers said. "The Cleveland game we came out like gangbusters and as the game goes on, we just don’t sustain our play. The game plan against Cleveland was great coming out and we lost it. The game plan coming out tonight again was great, then we lose our way. It’s my job to try to make sure we keep going, keep playing, keep playing at the right pace. We didn’t do that.”
Tatum led the Celtics with 31 points on 7 of 21 shooting. Brown had 14 while White and Holiday had 15 apiece. Payton Pritchard came off the bench to score 18 for Boston.
Did you notice AJ Green and Ryan Rollins?
On Friday night in New York, Rivers and Antetokounmpo had once again noted that opponents were consistently getting on the floor for 50/50 balls and beating the Bucks in the “want it” plays. The Bucks got that kind of effort from two of their youngest reserves in Green and Ryan Rollins.
Green dove for a loose ball at the 4:07 mark of the first quarter, beating out Celtics big man Neemias Queta for a Holiday missed three-pointer. Green got the ball out and it led to a Lillard jumper and a 32-21 Bucks lead.
Green also fought for a steal from Tatum late in the third quarter, bouncing hard on top of the ball and the court. Unfortunately that time around, Green wasn’t able to make an open three-pointer.
Rollins, a two-way player who surpassed veteran Delon Wright on the Bucks depth chart, chased down Queta on a fast break to block the ball out of bounds to prevent an easy two points and keep the deficit at one – and eventually the Bucks took a lead on two Connaughton free throws. Rollins then came flying in for a helpside block on a Derrick White block attempt that earned him an ovation from the home crowd and led to a Antetokounmpo bucket.
Bobby Portis Jr. has strong game off bench for Bucks
The Bucks are built to be an offensive juggernaut, and arguably done so to withstand an injury to one of their three best players. But for that to happen, players like Trent, Lopez and Portis need to perform at – at least – career averages. And while all three are slumping terribly (and now Trent is dealing with an injury of his own), the lack of offensive production is more glaring with Portis.
The Bucks’ sixth man has been empowered under Rivers to be a scorer off the bench, a take-charge bucket getter. Never the strongest defender, Portis’ value is when he’s putting up double-doubles off the bench and giving the team a boost with his scoring.
But after a blistering three-game preseason in which he shot 75% from the field and 81.8% from behind the three-point line, Portis’ shooting has cratered to 44.9% overall and 25.9% from behind the arc. The former is his worst in his five-year Bucks career and the latter is by far the worst of his 10-year career.
After a 1-for-8 showing against New York on Friday, Rivers said it was on him to find Portis better opportunities to catch a rhythm.
“He’s so important for us,” Rivers said after the Knicks loss.
Antetokounmpo has also talked about how the team needed to get Portis going and Lillard said, “When he’s on the floor I’m always aware of where he is, and when I feel like he has a matchup where if he runs the floor and he’s the first guy down there and he has space I’m always aware of that and trying to get him opportunities because I know how important he is to our team.”
But the Bucks point guard also acknowledged how his teammate is going through it.
“It’s part of the game,” Lillard continued. “We all go through our ups and downs and our struggles shooting the ball. And we all go through our moments where we just don’t play our best. I think for the really good players like him, you don’t get concerned with it. You just keep going. You know that it’s going to click at some point.”
Rivers felt he noticed some hesitation in Portis shooting against the Knicks, and said the forward isn’t in the game for any other reason than to “go for it.” For his part, Portis has maintained that he has kept his confidence because he leans on the work that he’s put into the season, whether a shot goes in or doesn’t.
“I don’t feel like I’ve gotten to a slow start – probably just more of getting to different spots and things like that and finding more ways to get easier baskets,” he said after the Knicks loss. “That’s probably the thing. I don’t think I’m having a slow start at all. I’m me. Shots are probably just haven’t gone in at the highest clip like I normally do but I’m pretty sure, I think my last couple years here, I’ve always started off from three slow. I always pick it up and find it, so it’s not something I’m worried about. I’ll keep shooting and hold my follow through, making sure I’m on balance, keeping my same principles and it’ll turn around.”
There have been some flashes of Portis coming out of it, like a 21-point, 18-rebound showing in Cleveland on Nov. 4 starting in place of an injured Antetokounmpo and a 3 of 6 performance from behind the three-point line against the Jazz and Sunday against Boston showed more moments of a turn.
Despite a 3-of-7 performance from the field in the first half, his baskets came in rhythm – a catch-and-shoot three from Antetokounmpo, a floater and a smooth midrange. His nine points and five rebounds were key in building a 69-58 lead at the break.
In the second half he scored four of the Bucks’ 15 third quarter points to keep them connected as the Celtics ran out to their first lead of the game. He finished the game with 15 points on 6 of 12 shooting to go with seven rebounds.
Five numbers
1: Flagrant fouls by Celtics forward Jaylen Brown, as he threw a right elbow into the face and neck of Giannis Antetokounmpo at the 6:52 mark of the third quarter. Antetokounmpo made both free throws.
3: Teams this century that have made the playoffs after a 1-6 start (2003-04 Miami, 2004-05 Chicago and 2021-22 New Orleans).
Rivers: “We just gotta dig ourselves out of this hole we’re creating. We created it. All of us. Me. Them. Together. I have no doubt we will. But it’s not one night. We could’ve won tonight and we’d still be in the hole. We have to play ourselves out of this hole.”
6: Shots for Bucks center Brook Lopez against the Celtics in 28 minutes. He attempted a total of seven shots against Utah and New York on Nov. 7-8 and scored eight total points. Lopez finished with six points and three blocked shots.
Rivers: “Brook’s not getting enough shots the last two games (against Utah and New York), to me, where he could’ve had shots and we’re just not moving the ball. The indicator is pretty easy for us to see when the ball is hopping and when it’s not. But on most nights Brook is the beneficiary of ball movement, so we gotta do a better job.”
Lopez: “I think we just have to continue to find ways to foster ball movement. I’m sure you guys can see it, it sticks at times, it looks like guys are kind of frozen trying to figure out what to do – almost like we’re overthinking. We just have to keep playing naturally side-to-side. We just gotta keep trying to foster that environment. I’m trying to do it myself. I know we have other guys out there trying to do it, trying to make it happen, we just gotta keep working on that.”
8: More free throws the Celtics made than the Bucks, 24 to 16. Boston shot 27 while Milwaukee attempted 21.
2000-01: Bucks team that began the year 3-9 before finishing 49-21 and reaching the Eastern Conference Finals. Interestingly, the 2001-02 team started 9-1 and did not make the playoffs, going 32-40 after the hot start.
Bucks’ schedule loosens up briefly
The Sunday matinee represented the heart of a five-games-in-seven-days stretch, which featured a home-road back-to-back against Utah and New York on Nov. 7-8 and concludes with home games Nov. 12-13 against Toronto and Detroit.
Following Sunday’s game against the Celtics this is arguably the stretch for the Bucks to “get right” with home games against Toronto (2-8) and Detroit (4-6) before two days off and a matinee in Charlotte (4-5).
But those teams present familiar challenges for the Bucks in that they have new coaches trying to create new cultures, have youthful talent and will get out and run and frankly – look at the Bucks as a team that can be taken advantage of.
On paper, the Bucks are better than those teams. But the standings do not show as much.
And right after that game in Charlotte on Nov. 16 they go right into another five-games-in-seven-days stretch beginning with a tough Houston team on Nov. 18. But, four of those games at Fiserv Forum.
“No one is going anywhere (in the Eastern Conference) but our level (of urgency) is extremely high because our record is not what we thought it would be at this point,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said before the game. “I can’t tell you what I thought it would be but I knew it wouldn’t be this – and it is. And so, yeah, I think the urgency level is extremely high. How handle that will be a teacher for us as well. If we play through that, play well through that, and learn from how we started this could be a great teaching point for us. If we don’t handle it, it could continue. So we’ll see.”
Is Giannis playing?
Yes, per head coach Doc Rivers. The Bucks’ star was listed as probable to play with tendinopathy in his right patella, it is highly unlikely he would call out the team and then miss the following game. He has played the last two games with the injury, and while his shooting has been affected, he has still been dominant around the rim.
What channel is the Bucks game on?
Even though the game will tip off at 2:30 p.m. CT, it is not a nationally televised contest. The game will be broadcast locally on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin with Lisa Byington, Marques Johnson and Melanie Ricks on the call.
Bucks injury report
Khris Middleton, out (surgery on both ankles)Rivers: “There’s no update. But he did go (Saturday) I want to say three-on-three, maybe even four-on-four. So
Gary Trent Jr., out (lower back spasms)
Andre Jackson Jr., available (left hip pointer)
Giannis Antetokounmpo, available (right patella tendinopathy)
Ryan Rollins, available (left shoulder contusion)
Celtics injury report
Kristaps Porziņģis, out (foot surgery)
Jaden Springer, out (left knee tendinopathy)
Jaylen Brown, available (left hip flexor strain)Note: Brown is starting Sunday after missing his last four games.
Luke Kornet, questionable (right hamstring tightness)
Bucks starters
Guards: Damian Lillard, Andre Jackson Jr.
Forwards: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Taurean Prince
Center: Brook Lopez
Bucks vs. Celtics odds, over/under
Boston is a 4.5-point favorite to beat Milwaukee, and the over/under on the game is 228.5 total points per BetMGM.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Giannis Antetokounmpo scores 43 but Celtics top Bucks 113-107
