Rapid Recap: Bucks 113, Celtics 122

If I had told you before this Giannis Antetokounmpo-less game, that Jrue Holiday would shoot 6-25 from the field, but the Milwaukee Bucks would still force it into a 113-122 overtime loss against the Boston Celtics, I think you’d be happy enough. While it’s never fun to lose to another East rival, it spoke more about the state of this nearly full-strength Boston team than anything about the Bucks.

NBA.com Box Score

A jolt from Bobby Portis in the first period helped Milwaukee even things up at 30 in TD Garden after one. A more balanced scoring effort in the second quarter helped push the Bucks ahead 55-51 at half after a late, falling corner triple from George Hill. Boston finally made their push in the third period behind 10-11 shooting inside the arc on top of 8-8 from the charity stripe. They led 88-81 entering the final stanza. Milwaukee trailed by six with just over a minute to go, but two clutch triples by the increasingly pivotal clutch player, Grayson Allen, helped tie it up to send it into OT 108-108 after a Jayson Tatum jumper clanked off at the buzzer. Milwaukee kept it close to start OT, but could never snare the lead as Dennis Schroder capped a season-high 38 on 16-27 shooting.

Stat that Stood Out

I listed Jrue as my player to watch coming into this game, and he had every opportunity to try and push this team over the top in Giannis’s absence. Unfortunately, his hot shooting from the Knicks game from deep didn’t carry over, and he went 6-25 overall and 1-12 from three. That’s obviously an outlier performance, and Milwaukee wouldn’t have been in this game without his defense and 13 assists, but hopefully he’s able to slough off this Playoff-Jrue level of shooting soon.