The Milwaukee Bucks also won their second home game of the first round series against the Boston Celitcs, equalising the score at 2-2. They lost a 20-point lead, but Giannis Antetokounmpo was there at the decisive moment.
Liquid attacks were scarce in the early minutes of this game. But the Celtics managed to take a first lead (10-4) thanks to some offensive rebounds, while the Bucks started out of the field with 1/10 goals.
But the tide should turn quickly. When the hosts made a few stops, the arena woke up and you could see Antetokounmpo and co. as their self-confidence grew. Thus some difficult throws fell in, in addition many communication errors of the Celtics Defense, which were punished with clever cuts and points at the board.
A sequence at the end of the first quarter showed the Celtics in this phase: Khris Middleton let two defenders fly into nowhere with a simple fake and hit by floater. With 1.5 seconds remaining on the clock, Marcus Morris simply rolled the subsequent inbound pass into the field – Matthew Dellavedova splashed in between and scored with the buzzer for 27:14.
Afterwards, Boston was no longer able to generate momentum until pause tea. Jaylen Brown’s single rays of hope countered the Bucks immediately, their threesomes fell in rows and the strong defense allowed only a 30 percent throw quota. At halftime they led comfortably with 51:35.
After the break, Tyler Zeller committed his fourth foul, which did not really matter at first. The Bucks defense was still intense (the goblins had sunk only 2 threesomes!), hardly a Celtics degree was easy. On the other hand, all Milwaukee players took turns on the scoreboard, making the offensive difficult to calculate. In no time the lead was 20 points.
Then, however, the Bierstadters’ offense gradually fell into the old-fashioned aimlessness, leading Boston to a 12-2 run. A threesome of Jayson Tatum made the matter single digits (69:60), Brown followed up from downtown. At the beginning of the final section everything was suddenly open again, which was quite surprising due to the course of the game before.
Just 10 minutes before the end Morris sunk a three-pointer from the corner to 75:77, the Bucks were visibly impressed. A threesome of Makers provided redemption, the crowd was grateful for this moment and became louder again. On the field the teams alternated with threesomes, it was now an open exchange of blows – until deep in the crunchtime.
1’50” before the end, Giannis hit a free-throw for 99’95”, but Brown responded with an ice-cold step-back triple and the Bucks lost the ball on the other side. Tatum took the chance to lead Celtics with an isolation and netted from the half distance. Then the teams alternated with ball losses – before Malcolm Brogdon sunk a transition triple to 102:100 (33 seconds to go).
On the other hand, Al Horford went to the line, kept his nerve and balanced. The answer: A tip-in from the Greak Freak five seconds before the end! That should have been it in the end, because a well defended Jumper of Morris did not find his goal with the Buzzer.
Giannis, who provided the highlight of the evening with a crashing dunk over Horford, scored 27 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists, Middleton scored 23 points. On the other hand, Brown reached a new playoff career high (34 points), Tatum scored 21 points.