Thanks to Giannis Antetokounmpo’s outstanding performance, the Milwaukee Bucks did their duty in the home game against the Boston Celtics, forcing the game to 7. 97:86 victory threatened to be overturned for a long time, but was finally decided in the final minutes by the Star-Power Antetokounmpos.
Bucks-interim coach Joe Prunty changed his starting grid again before game 6. Tyler Zeller, previously employed for the injured John Henson, was replaced by Thon Maker. Brad Stevens relied on the recipe for success in game 5 and once again placed his versatile defender Semi Ojeleye in the top five.
Boston first convinced – as so often with – strong defense and allowed only 6 points of Bucks top scorer Khris Middelton and Giannis Antetokounmpo in the first quarter. At the other end of the court, Terry Rozier caught fire with three goals from outside and a total of 11 points. However, Matthew Dellavedova and Jabari Parker’s Milwaukee side countered with a 10-2 run, shortening the Celtics lead to 24-22.
In the middle of the second quarter Eric Bledsoe started a 14:2 run with strong actions on both sides, which brought the Bucks into the lead with 48:39 after the first half time. The Celtics had big problems with the length of the bucks during the offensive and were forced to take difficult throws from the perimeter again and again. After an inconspicuous first 12 minutes, Antetokounmpo left his offensive fingerprint with 9 points in the quarter. 48:39 bucks.
After Stevens’ mid-term speech, his charges were much more aggressive and Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum in particular kept moving towards the Zone. In the meantime, the game evened 61:61, but the Bucks finished the quarter with a 14:3 run in which Antetokounmpo and Middleton were responsible for 10 points – 74:65 Bucks.
In the early stages of the final quarter, the Celtics took advantage of Giannis’ short break to reduce the Bucks lead to 3 points. Malcolm Brogdon then finished a field goal thirst course of over two minutes on both sides in a threesome. After that Prunty could rely on Star-Power again: Antetokounmpo scored 8 points in a row for the Bucks and extended the lead to play 1:13 to 94:84. Stevens threw in the towel immediately afterwards and said goodbye to his starters early in the evening. Final score – 97:86 bucks.
Antetokounmpo scored 12 of his 31 points (12/23 FG) in the fourth quarter and put 14 rebounds on top. With 16 points Middleton pulled his average over the series down a bit, but with 7/8 FG he could show an outstanding efficiency. Brogdon and Bledsoe each scored 16 points, Parker just missed a double-double with 9 points and 11 rebounds from the bank.
With the Celtics a solid portion of bad luck stuck to almost all hands. Tatum was his team’s top scorer with 22 points, but only scored 6 of his 14 field casts. Rozier (18, 5/17), Brown (14, 6/15), Marcus Morris (12, 5/14) and Marcus Smart (6, 2/9) also failed to score with throwing efficiency. Al Horford hit 4 of his 8 litters from the field and delivered 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks.
Milwaukee travels to Boston with a solid dose of momentum for Game 7 – on the other hand, the Celtics can claim that the home team has always won the series so far.
Milwaukee Bucks vs. Boston Celtics 97:86, series 3:3 (BOXSCORE)
The Celtics offensive was alarmingly weak in the second quarter (15 points) and showed once again how much Boston misses the qualities of Kyrie Irving. None of the Celtics was able to put pressure on the Bucks defence with dribble penetration. This resulted in an altogether disastrous selection of litters, which was marked by closely sworn perimeter litters and the Celtics took only three litters near the basket (one hit).
Apart from short outbreaks on the part of Brown and Tatum, the Celtics open house was a complete disappointment. With 37 percent field throwing quota and 27.8 percent from outside, they each delivered lowest values for the previous series. In halfcourt situations Boston radiated absolutely no danger and found no effective means against the length of the bucks in the course of the game.
Milwaukee could have spent the evening much more comfortably if they hadn’t left a few simple points on the line again. The Bucks dropped 8 of their 21 free throws and finished last among all 16 teams in the playoffs to date with 66.9 percent free throws.
Khris Middleton once again delivered an extremely efficient throwing performance with a field balance of 7/8. It was all the more surprising that Prunty and the Bucks-Offense in general did not manage to involve him more often. Middleton did not get a litter in the fourth quarter and would certainly have been a good option in the cold phases of the Milwaukee offensive.
Giannis Antetokounmpo. After only 16 points and 10 attempts to throw in game 5, Giannis rightly had to be accused of passivity – but caused a strong reaction here. The Celtics defense and the lack of spacing on the Bucks’ side during phases made the space for Antetokounmpo narrow, but in the end he fought his way to the basket with pure will again and again and could not be stopped there.
Terry Rozier. The Irving replacement started the game hot, but then overrevved and was a big part of the Celtics’ offensive total failure. Too seldom Rozier used his dribbling to move into the zone and relied too often on too difficult throws from the distance (4/12 FG). In addition, he also failed to create promising throws for his teammates.
The lineup around Antetokounmpo on the five was the main reason for building up the Bucks lead in the first half. Prunty, who had been very frugal and hesitant with this theoretically dangerous line-up before, took the opportunity to bet more on it in the second half.