Post Game - Celtics vs. Milwaukee Bucks - Monday, October 28 (W)

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401704670

From Another Perspective:


Bucks lose to Celtics, Jaylen Brown scores 30 points

https://www.fox6now.com/sports/bucks-celtics-score-102824

By Ken PowtakPublished October 28, 2024 9:22pm CDT Milwaukee Bucks Associated Press

BOSTON - Jaylen Brown scored 30 points, Payton Pritchard came off the bench and hit eight 3-pointers en route to 28 points, and the Boston Celtics beat the Milwaukee Bucks 119-108 on Monday night.

Reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week Jayson Tatum added 15 points and eight rebounds for Boston (4-0). Derrick White had 13 points and eight assists.

Damian Lillard led the Bucks with 33 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, and Giannis Antetokounmpo had 30 points, 10 boards and six assists. Milwaukee has lost three straight after winning its opener.

It was close until late in the third quarter, when Pritchard hit a 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds left, putting Boston ahead 90-82.

The Celtics scored the next seven points for a 15-point lead. Pritchard hit another 3-pointer during the spree.

Takeaways

Bucks: Coming off a 13-point loss at Brooklyn on Sunday, they showed some toughness late into the third quarter before Boston’s offense took over.

Celtics: They keep taking a lot of 3-pointers and making them. The Celtics, who tied the NBA record with 29 3s in their season-opening win over the Knicks, were 18 of 47 from beyond the arc on Monday.

Key moment

The Bucks led 80-79 before the Celtics went on an 18-2 run that spanned the final two minutes of the third quarter and the opening 1:37 of the fourth.

Key stat

Pritchard was 8 of 12 on 3-pointers and fell one short of his career high of nine, set on April 9, 2023.

Up next

The Bucks are at Memphis on Thursday to close their three-game trip, and the Celtics visit Indiana Wednesday.

Starting to see some things I'm really liking about this team, how/why management brought everyone back, showing some fight.  A lot happened in this game.  A lot didn't happen.  What was shown was a team 2 great shooting and scoring guys do not a team nor half of basketball make.  Also that timely defense ruins any chance of our opponent winning.  This holds in the regular season and infinitely more so in the playoffs.  Last but not least, the Bucks made a huge mistake giving up Jrue.  Jrue made sure they knew that last night.     

1.  Let's start with what looked like the refs feeling sorry for the Bucks and their 1-2 game season starting plight to date and them literally giving the Bucks darn near every call and not giving us any to start the game.  This went on for at least the first half.  Finally around the 3rd quarter, the refs couldn't hide their ruse anymore and were forced to make calls in our favor.  You all know I don't ever typically complain about the refs, but our two techs were earned and whatever was said to earn them was 100% warranted.  Nuff said.

2.  Pritch, Please!!!  Saw that sign on our TNT game recently.  Very funny.  A slight play/reference to an old kids phrase/saying, "Bitch, Please!!!".  I'm reminded of Larry Bird and how he would tell the guy and/or the opposing team exactly what he was going to do on the next Celtic play and the result.  The opposition knows Pritch is a 3-baller and a perfect combo of a mosquito/gnat on the court on a hot summer day.  Yet the opponent keeps letting him have the ball, bring it up court and hits the three every single time.  Bitch, Please!!  They had 8 of his 3's to deal with last night (or chose not to deal with...yeah that crap didn't work!!).  My favorite was when Damian left him wide open in the corner on a defense collapse in the second half.  2nd verse, same as the 1st.  Damian, you just score, playing defense does not become you.  Game Balls to Pritch and JB.   

3.   We started running and forcing TO's in the 2nd half.  16-12 Bucks "won" on TO's.  Looked like a lot more bumbling on their end for only 16.  Please don't bring up you were short Middleton until KP comes back on our end.  Got it?!  No excuses, Doc.

4.  I am going to have to put a standing comment in each game.  Derrick White is ridiculous.  There aren't many ways to say it.  Glue.  Clutch.  Johnny on the spot.  Handyman.  Jack of all trades.  Sweet Butter.  OK, there are a few.  I'll try to make it interesting each game.  Help or suggestions are encouraged.    

5.  Jrue loves sticking it to MIL.  Clutch D against Giannis of all people.  Fearless.  Timely 3's.  Drives to collapse defense.  Whack-a-mole is back, folks.  But it's worse for the competition.  Now when you whack one of ours down, TWO more pop up!!  This is accompanied by much more disconcerting, mentally disturbing and debilitating Helter Skelter defense by us.  This is what you gave up MIL with Jrue.  And things won't get any better or closer for Bucks.  Bucks played pretty well for 3 quarters and that was it.  The car ran out of gas.  Looking like another first round exit or worse missing it all together.  Check your record.  Record don't lie.  My prediction?  They will either finish Top 3 in East or not make the playoffs.  MAY make the play-in.       

6.  PITP were nowhere near what it looked like.  We only lost 44-40.  Looked like 100-4 with those two clown bigs for MIL.  Good job bigs.  Way to bounce back after that debacle in DET!  Al stepped up as he always does for Giannis.  That's a load with both Giannis and Lopez sans KP.  We're good.  Our bigs held our own.      

7.  Joe's Neato Stat o' the Night - Made 3's? We won 18-8.  % 3's made?  38%-26%.  We'll trade 3 for 2 all day long.  Math don't lie.  Made more, shot better.  Who didn't lose?  No further questions, Your Honor.  

8.  Fast break points very telling to go with those 16 Bucks TO's.  We won 26-10.  That's brutal and hard to make up with just a bunch of Giannis layups. 

9.  Lakers Lost.  Get ready for a whole bunch a more and the JJ Reddick initial "I'm the smartest person in the room" shine wears off until it gets to the surface where it is revealed and reads "I ain't got an effing clue what I'm doing" begins to rear its ugly head.  Back to the play-in if that.    

10. Give Giannis and Damian credit.  We guarded them well and still they both got 30+.  But you can't win any games with just 2 big scorers.  That's what makes DAL so interesting.  But the outcome will still be the same.  Jason Kidds philosophy is just score more vs. defense.  Good luck with that.  Drive for show during the regular season, JK.  Putt for dough with defense in playoffs.  Oh wait, you have no defense, just scorers.  Look up 90's SAC Kings for how this dance turns/turned out.    

OK.  That's a good start!!  IND up next.      

db

how long will it take for them to fire Doc Rivers?

I actually enjoyed the competitive game early and knew it was a matter of time. Bucks are a shell of themselves and read somewhere that since Doc took over the team, they have been a .500 team. Their obvious weakness is they only have 3 good bigs and basically no wings and no perimeter defense. They failed to make any defensive adjustments. Our all NBA wing putting on a clinic in post up and bully ball, why didn’t Giannis come/slide over and help? He and Pritch carried us. Right now I’d take Pritch over Dame, better defender and better shooter, go look at the stats. Dame time looks over to me, sadly.

It would have been a 25-30 point blowout if Tatum was on. This team is so deep and good defensively that we can win without Zinger and if a star is off doesn’t matter, someone can pick up the slack. Last game Jaylen was off, tonight Tatum was off. Didn’t matter. The defense was still on enough. The kid I love watching defend is Walsh, great just what we need another long wing multi positional defender. Brad has decided to develop this kid over the offense of Lonnie Walker and he already shows he can be an intangible guy I think. Just keep on playing off the starters and vets and you’ll be fine.

Oh have to say gotta love Al, he looks the same as last year, he’s still Al. Can hit the 3, spread the floor, played tough defense on Giannis, no one completely shuts down GA, but Al blocked a few of his shots and continues to defy his age. Jaylen is actually improving still and even stronger at his strengths, how this guy was not all NBA last year is a travesty. I tell all my friends I would take him over Luka, they say I’m nuts and I say you don’t know the game….

It was an enjoyable game in some regards, and yes, I was just waiting for them to blow them off the floor at some point.....just a couple of observations. JT......man...you just have got to learn to walk away. Tony Brothers was dying to t you up, and you fell right into the hole. No..they do not respect you at all. Lilliard got ridiculous calls all night, JT on the other hand could not get them to blow that whistle. He baited you and you bit....and that threw your game off. If you were on, we would have won by 30. The Bucks are has beens, Giannis will demand a trade at some point, and if Lillard has his way he will end up witht he other fool in Miami Butler, who challenged his coach to a fight last week. Stupid is as stupid does, they all deserve one another, and Pat Riley is the ring leader And....the kids..........boy, it is like we have two lineups, both could play first string anywhere....wait until KP comes back. Joe....play tht bench, let them grow, we have some talent there. Peterson could easily help with Sam out, at least in the shooting end. His defense needs to improve, but he is 6ft7in tall, good length and could rebound, our sore spot right now. As I said in another post, how long a rope does Doc have??

Rosalie,

You are even more out front earlier than I am demanding that the ax needs to swing!  I usually save my brow beating for later in the season, but you're right.  Doc may be on the hot seat already.  Oh please fire him Bucks management!  I dare you.  I double dog dare you!!  Who are you going to bring in?!!  Never hurts to have some early season drama!!

db

The Bucks put up a credible show for most of the game.  They are a very different team without Middleton.  As Rosalie pointed out on the Game On! thread his body is starting to betray him.  When he comes back I still don't think he'll ever be the same player.  He has played a total of 88 games in the last 2 seasons plus 4 games of this one, a total of 168.  When you're barely playing half a season year-over-year that's means it's time to reconsider your career options.  A GM and coach certainly cannot expect a player like that to be a starter, play starter minutes, and also expect the team to compete for a Championship.  I like Khris Middleton, I always have, but the Bucks are in a tough spot.  He's making over $31M this year and is under contract for $34M next year and he's 33 years old.  He is, in a nutshell, untradeable this year and probably next year too unless a team is looking to do a major, major salary dump.

Without Middleton the Bucks only have Giannis and Dame.  That will be enough vs many teams, but not this one.  Even if/when Middleton comes back, and even if he still "has it", those 3 might not be enough to take us, we're just TOO deep.  Doc went deep into his bench, playing 13 players (4 of them only playing the last 3 garbage time minutes), and they only delivered 19 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists and 6 turnovers, zero steals.  Pritchard alone had 28/5/3/2/2.

Giannis had WAY too many north-south drives.  That is his strength.  He is way too big, too long, too skilled to let him have a straight line anywhere within the paint.  Al did a pretty good job of defending him, he had that amazing block and recovery (I cannot WAIT to see the Comments From The Other Side about that!), but Giannis still had a great game, as did Dame.  

Before we get TOO cocky here let's also remember this is was a SEGABABA for them.  I still don't think they could beat us but we had that edge once we started to focus.  Our legs were fine.

Jaylen started off with a poor game, just couldn't get on track.  0-2 after 1 and 2-8 at the half.  Then he started percolating. 7-14 after 3, for a 5-8 3rd quarter.  He ended up 10-19 (a 3-5 4th) with 14 ftas.  He took 4 3pt fgas, only 1 in the 2nd half, which means most of his fgas came from 2 and that's why he lived at the line.  I wish JT would learn from this.  JT just won't recognize when his 3pt shot isn't dropping and he just keeps taking them.  JB took 3 of them, they didn't drop, so he changed his game and attacked.  When one or both of the Js are driving it makes Payton much more effective.  Without Middleton there is nobody on the Bucks, other than Giannis, who can contain Jaylen when he attacks.  Connaughton is too small, Portis is too slow and Jaylen overpowered those two Buck bench guys, just plain out-muscled them.  Yeah, flex away, JB, you deserve it.




31 ftas vs 19 for us.  18 ftas for Dame.  That's nuts.  Bucks fans cannot complain about whistles today.


Payton said in his post-game presser "I'm the most competitive guy on this team".  Think about that.  On a Championship team, loaded with talent, with an All-Defense back court and two All-NBA players, Pritch da god is the most competitive.  Jrue said in his post-game presser that he's "too old to play 1-on-1 with Pritchard". Remember Pritchard's awful 1-10 from 3 first game vs Knicks? He's now shooting .500 from 3, 19-38. That's 18-28, 64%, in his last 3. Didn't I say he was competitive?




Jrue was the #3 scorer for us.  21 points, 4-7 from 3.  He got up for his old friends and teammates.


Joe being the sicko he is.  "We wanted to bring chaos".  I do not understand, however, why he didn't put Queta in to put a body on Lopez.  Neither Tillman nor Luke could handle him and Al was defending Giannis.  Other than that Joe has definitely grown on me now that his learning curve has flattened out a lot from 2 years ago.  The man is a definite "twist".




We are tied with Cleveland for the #1 record in the league.  Their MoV is bigger than ours (16.7 vs 15.0) but they played the Raptors (we haven't yet in the regular season), the Pistons (so did we), the Knicks (so did we) and the Wizards (so did we).  So their schedule, so far, has been easier than ours since their odd game was vs the Raptors while ours was vs the Bucks.  We don't play the Cavs until 11/19 @ home.


Bob


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https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5881837/2024/10/29/doc-rivers-says-championship-unlocked-celtics-derrick-white-al-horford-agree/?source=freedailyemail&campaign=601983&userId=13921316



Doc Rivers says championship unlocked Celtics. Derrick White, Al Horford agree



Boston, MA - October 28: Jrue Holiday #4 of the Boston Celtics hits a 3-pointer during the first half of the NBA game against the Milwaukee Bucks at the TD Garden. (Photo by Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)



By Jay King
Oct 29, 2024



BOSTON — Jrue Holiday, who rarely gives referees an earful, couldn’t believe the shot clock violation against the Boston Celtics. As he and Joe Mazzulla animatedly informed the officiating crew that Holiday’s shot actually hit the rim, referee Tony Brothers called a technical foul on the Boston bench. Instead of receiving an extra possession, because Holiday would have grabbed his own offensive rebound, the Celtics lost the ball and watched as the Bucks used their technical free throw to take a one-point lead.

A lesser team might have unraveled. The Celtics responded immediately with an 18-2 run.

“Just chaos,” Mazzulla said after the Celtics moved to 4-0, completing a 119-108 win. “Yeah. It’s perfect. It’s exactly what we needed.”

Some might say the Celtics showed championship poise during that game-changing stretch. Though it would be impossible to prove exactly how a title impacts a team in the seasons to come, Doc Rivers believes the Celtics unlocked a better version of themselves by winning the Larry O’Brien trophy. Calling them “a made basketball team now,” Rivers said their transformation is evident on the court. He believes they play “without any obstacles now” in the aftermath of the current core’s first ring.

“Winning that title, it’s taken them to another level,” Rivers said. “And you can feel it when they play.”

Has capturing a championship actually lifted the Celtics? Al Horford and Derrick White said they agree with Rivers’ claim.

“For sure,” Horford told The Athletic. “Winning definitely put our confidence at a different level. I feel like we’re still approaching things the same way. We’re working hard, we’re getting after it but I just think that the confidence — I see it in the approach. We’re understanding that we’ve already been able to do those things that we fought for. And now, it doesn’t matter the situation that you’re in, you still feel optimistic as a team.”

Echoed White, “I think we were pretty confident before, but I think when you accomplish something like that, with basically the same group, just that bond, that connection that we have — I think the other teams are kind of like searching for that. We basically just did it. We have that connection, we have that bond that when things are going well or things are going bad, we have a lot of trust in one another.”

It’s not like the Celtics had many holes last season. They posted one of the best net ratings ever during a 64-18 regular season then capped off the campaign with a 16-3 march through the playoffs. Crunch-time performance, occasionally a major problem for them in the past, became one of their many strengths. They handled adversity so well that they were almost able to escape it entirely. They were consistent enough to avoid any three-game losing streaks throughout the season. They never trailed in any of their four playoff series. Even missing Kristaps Porziņģis for most of the postseason couldn’t dim their invincibility.

The injured Porziņģis hasn’t appeared yet this season, but the Celtics have decimated opponents from behind the 3-point arc. Over four games, they have made 86 3-pointers compared to 40 for their opponents. Boston’s offensive rating so far (126.1) is nearly four points per 100 possessions better than it was last season. And last season, the Celtics set a new record for offensive efficiency. In this era of scoring, no other team has been able to keep pace with them. With nearly their entire roster back, the Celtics appear to know just who they are and what they want to do.

“I just think making the right read,” White said. “Trusting one another. Someone’s got it going, we find them. Everybody’s involved, so it’s a fun team to play for, a fun team to compete every night with. And we’re just hungry to keep getting better and learn. So I think that’s the cool part.”

Boston hasn’t always played well during this young season but has executed with precision whenever most necessary. After deteriorating for about half of the game Saturday while losing a 23-point lead against the Pistons, the Celtics were still able to perform under duress once crunch time hit. Trailing by six with four minutes left, they set up Holiday to tie the game with back-to-back 3-pointers on two beautiful sequences of ball movement. Detroit, able to score consistently during a big comeback, found no more success once the Celtics clamped down late. When winning time arrived, Mazzulla’s team found another gear.

Horford said he has seen a long list of teams operate with additional poise after winning a championship. In one example, he said the Nuggets handled themselves differently after capturing the 2023 title. In two close losses to Denver last season, Horford said he noticed the team’s composure during the most important moments of those games.

“Last year, they came in here, we made runs, they made runs and they kept their cool,” Horford said. “When it was time for them to turn it up and get a stop or go score or just do something, they had that ability.”

White said the Nuggets were never rattled. He feels a similar steadiness now in the Celtics.

“You kind of see that in other champions around the league,” White said. “Like, when things are going well, when things are going bad, they just kind of stay consistent. They’ve seen every outcome, they’ve been in every type of game, and just having that belief and that consistency. Nothing surprises them. And I think we’re the same way. We’ve literally seen every type of game. Up 20. Down 20. Hitting threes, not hitting threes. We have a lot of different ways to win.”

In what Mazzulla called chaos, the Celtics kept their cool against Milwaukee. After Damian Lillard’s technical free throw, Jayson Tatum forced a Bobby Portis travel in the post. Tatum missed the next Boston shot, but Payton Pritchard fought to tip the offensive rebound to Xavier Tillman and White capitalized with a go-ahead 3-pointer seconds later.

In the ensuing run, Jordan Walsh piled up hustle plays, White and Pritchard took turns drilling long jump shots and Jaylen Brown controlled the early part of the fourth quarter. Even one of Boston’s mistakes during the stretch, a Tatum foul while in the bonus deep in the third quarter, turned into a positive because it gave the Celtics one last possession in the period. Pritchard took advantage with a trademark end-of-the-clock bucket, much to Rivers’ chagrin.


NBA TV

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PAYTON PRITCHARD DOES IT AGAIN
https://twitter.com/i/status/1851073078345736346


Rivers said he looked so pained not just because Pritchard hit the shot, but because the Bucks failed to properly defend a situation they had strategized for earlier. (MY NOTE: If you watch the tweet as I did, repeatedly, you'll see that Doc was already bent over even before Payton shot)

“We had to channel him to the middle and we talked about it this morning,” Rivers said. “End of the quarter, he always tries to break off right. We went over that. And so it wasn’t that Pritchard reaction. It was more my reaction that this is something we covered and we were there and we let him go right. Right when he went right, I didn’t know it was going to go in. I just didn’t think good things were about to happen and they didn’t.”


Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers talks with Damian Lillard during Monday’s game. “Winning that title, it’s taken them to another level,” the former Celtics coach said. “And you can feel it when they play.” (Paul Rutherford / Imagn Images)


The Celtics could have melted down. Instead, they needed less than five minutes of game time to turn a one-point deficit into a 97-82 lead.

Even before being on the wrong end of that run, Rivers detailed why he believes the championship has transformed the Celtics.

“They have complete trust in the pass,” Rivers said. “They trust each other. They play together. And there’s nobody in the league that does it better than them right now. And they’re showing it every night.”


Bob


.

Trying to watch a basketball game, a baseball game and a football game all at the same time is no easy feat. You get a sore thumb from constantly pressing a button on the remote.

Despite that, I noticed something about the Celtics. They got that one guy, Pritchard; guy can play, can't he? Might be a future for him in this league.

By the way; YouTube TV. You can split the screen and watch all three simultaneously.

NYCelt wrote:Trying to watch a basketball game, a baseball game and a football game all at the same time is no easy feat. You get a sore thumb from constantly pressing a button on the remote.

Despite that, I noticed something about the Celtics. They got that one guy, Pritchard; guy can play, can't he? Might be a future for him in this league.

By the way; YouTube TV. You can split the screen and watch all three simultaneously.

Good to know and I too was doing the same exact thing, moments like last night you realize there are a hell of a lot of commercials and thank god for remotes 🤭

NYCelt wrote:Trying to watch a basketball game, a baseball game and a football game all at the same time is no easy feat. You get a sore thumb from constantly pressing a button on the remote.

Despite that, I noticed something about the Celtics. They got that one guy, Pritchard; guy can play, can't he? Might be a future for him in this league.

By the way; YouTube TV. You can split the screen and watch all three simultaneously.

NYCelt,

Now I just need to grow compound eyes like a fly.


Bob


.

Also more food for fodder, last night our 2 best players went a combined 1-12 from 3, in the past something like this would have killed us, but we’re so deep now and play both ends it doesn’t matter. Gotta love the way this team was put together, we lead the league in 3’s and have the top perimeter defense. We can defend/attack the point of attack with multiple players.

Bob as a coach he knew what would work in this era/league and built appropriately around the J’s. He saw the league trending on the perimeter, I better get some good swarming athletic perimeter guys to defend. So glad we never broke up the J’s. Love the way these guys run the floor, dunk/finish, defend multiple positions, now they like sharing the wealth/the ball equally. They know when to get to their spots and take the game over and how to get teammates good looks!!