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CELTICS ALLOW BUCKS TO SNAP 11-GAME LOSING STREAK

By WEEI  
 
Brad Stevens

This wasn’t exactly the corner the Celtics thought they might be turning.

After a decisive home win over Cleveland Friday night, the Celts suffered one of their worst losses of the season Saturday night, dropping a 92-85 decision to the lowly Bucks. The subpar performance was made even more difficult to digest for Brad Stevens’ team considering Milwaukee had lost 11 straight.

Two of the Bucks’ three wins this season have now come against the Celtics.

The C’s had jumped out to an eight-point lead after the first quarter, but were outscored 28-14 in the second quarter. Also not not helping matters was a fourth stanza that didn’t see the Celtics convert a field goal until almost halfway through the quarter.

Jeff Green couldn’t quite repeat his 31-point performance of Friday night, finishing with 18 points. Jared Sullinger turned in another solid outing, scoring 21 while hauling in 14 rebounds.

Avery Bradley (4-for-15 from the floor, 9 points) fouled out of his league-leading third game.

The Celts were also out-rebounded by the usually rebound-challenged Bucks, 49-39, with the visitors making just four of their 19 three-point attempts.
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Rapid Reaction: Bucks 92, Celtics 85

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

Rapid reaction after the Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Boston Celtics 92-85 on Saturday night at the BMO Harris Bradley Center:

Brandon Knight flirted with a triple-double (20 points, nine rebounds, eight assists), while John Henson registered a double-double (13 points, 13 rebounds) and the Bucks snapped an 11-game losing streak by rallying past the Celtics for the second time this season. Milwaukee shot 47.1 percent beyond the 3-point arc (8 of 17), which included Knight making all three of his attempts and O.J. Mayo (team-high 22 points) adding a couple as well. Rookie Giannis Antetokounmpo added 16 points off the Milwaukee bench and made some highlight-worthy plays (one first-half block/dunk in transition sequence was particularly noteworthy). Jared Sullinger led Boston by posting team highs with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Jordan Crawford and Jeff Green each added 18 points apiece for the Celtics.

TURNING POINT
The Celtics endured an abysmal second quarter (getting outscored 28-14), but that only negated a strong start. The game got away from Boston late in the third quarter. The Bucks were up three (61-58) with 3:29 to play in the frame, but Antetokounmpo followed a 3-pointer with a dunk and Milwaukee's lead stretched to nine. Luke Ridnour hit a 3-pointer to open the fourth quarter, pushing the Bucks' lead to double figures, where it would stay for much of the rest of the game. A late flurry had Boston within seven a couple times in the final 90 seconds, but the Celtics could never get even within two possessions.

FLAGRANT FOUL
Sullinger was tagged with his second flagrant-1 foul in the past seven days (he also earned one in Atlanta). It turned out to be a big sequence as Khris Middleton made both free throws before Mayo hit a jumper after Milwaukee retained possession, and the Bucks doubled their lead from four to eight early in the third quarter.

LOOSE BALLS
Courtney Lee (sore left knee) missed his second straight game. ... Neither Rajon Rondo (ACL rehab) or Kelly Olynyk (sprained right ankle) traveled to Milwaukee, either. ... Keith Bogans got some early second-quarter run, while MarShon Brooks played the final 4 ½ minutes. ... Gerald Wallace played 24:30 without a shot or a point. He did contribute four rebounds and four assists. ... The Celtics shot 41.7 percent, but only 21.1 percent beyond the arc; Milwaukee shot 46.2 percent, but thrived behind the 3-point line. ... Boston led by as much as 11 early on.

WHAT IT MEANS
The Celtics (7-12) missed a chance to pull even with the Toronto Raptors atop the Atlantic Division. Instead, they fell to maybe the worst team in the league for the second time this season. On the positive side, a brutal November is over. Boston had played 19 games in 31 days to start the 2013-14 season. December is far more agreeable (only 12 games over 31 days with ample rest/practice time). The Celtics have the next two days off before hosting Milwaukee (yes, another game with the Bucks) on Tuesday night at TD Garden.

112288

I'm convinced. The Bucks have their number.



KJ

You Think?

Remember they are not Cleveland !

112288

Well, we can't complain about getting off to a slow start, can we?  We shot 59% in the 1st quarter.  We were ahead 27-19 after one with 20 of our points in the paint.

We were down to shooting 42% by the half, the result of a 14 point 2nd quarter.  Sully was still going strong but our #2 and 3 scorers, Green and Vitor with 6 each, didn't score in the 2nd.

We should have blown these guys out.  They were down 4 key players:  Larry Sanders (starting center), Ilyasova (starting PF), Caron Butler (starting SF) and Carlos Delfino (backup SF).  They were reeling on a 11-game losing streak too.  A lot of the seats were empty and the crowd wasn't real strong.  This was about as close to playing in a neutral arena as you can get during the regular season.

In the Post-Cleveland thread I said that Stevens had a lot of good things to work with from that game.  I'm tempted to go back and delete that comment, because this game sure didn't make that ring true.

1.  It's a good thing Sully made the bus because he was the only one who played every minute.  This kid is pure Celtic, not just because he's wearing green but because he has great pride and has refused from Day 1 to buy into the whole "Riggin for Wiggins" BS.  "Building block"?  Hell yes.  HELL. YES.  If there was one weakness in his game last night it was that he got 3-happy.  He was 1-5, which is about what the team shot from 3, but I still don't like all those 3s.  Live by the 3, die by the 3.  We felt so good about 3s after the Cleveland game and they came back to bite us this game.  On the inside though, what a beast.  John Henson had a pretty good game, starting for Sanders, but Sully was MUCH better.  He had 21 points on 10-18 and all but 5 of his shots (the 3pt fgas) came from the low blocks and in.  14 rebounds too.  As if this wasn't enough to like, he laid a few more hard fouls on them too.  One was a flagrant 1, but I think the league will review and void it.  Fouling hard and not giving up the layup is not the same thing as throwing a player to the floor and the Buck never lost balance and fell on this call.  I hate this about the NBA today.  Wussification.  Sully's such a smart player a half a year in Garnett University was all he needed.  There was no Mastodon Mamba last night, it was just Sully dancing with himself.  

2.  Some good news?  We only had 10 TOs.  More good news, we had 84fgas.  Even more?  We had 41 rebounds and 41 points in the paint.  This all just goes to show how statistics can be enlightening or complete BS.  In this case, they're BS.  The key stat is one that couldn't be quantified, energy.  We played flat and they didn't.  They played with energy, with purpose and they attacked.  They also hit their 3s.  They did unto us what we did unto Cleveland the night before.  They were 8-17 from 3.  They also had 16 fast break points to 4 for us.  They ran, they hit their key shots.  We did neither.  They won just about every 50/50 ball.  Their 11 offensive rebounds didn't come so much from winning them underneath so much as they were from keeping the ball alive and then just running them down.  They just out-hustled us.

3.  Their back court killed our back court.  There might have been some difference if Lee had been healthy and played, he might match up with OJ Mayo the best, but otherwise Mayo did exactly whatever he wanted.  Same with Brandon Knight.  With 9 rebounds, 8 assists and 20 points, Knight was real close to a triple-double.  Out of Milwaukee's 78fgas, these two players took 28 of them and hit 16.  Bradley fouled out and shot 4-15.  Not a good night for AB.  Crawford had 18 on 6-15, better, but was largely invisible for most of the night, coming alive late in the game.  

4.  Marshon Brooks is a human victory cigar, at this point.  Ok, every team has one, but why was Bogans playing 6 non-garbage time minutes?  Trying to defend Mayo?  Yeah, right.

5.  Stevens called two really good ATOs (After Time Out) plays.  One resulted in a dunk by Bass and the other one got Bradley on a back cut like he used to get from Rondo (Stevens has said they are running a lot of Rondo-centric plays, so that he'll fit back in faster when he comes back.  Maybe that was one of them).  He missed the bunny, but it was a well-drawn up play.  

6.  Wallace didn't take a fga.  He had 4 rebs, 4 assists, 2 steals but no shots.  Our offense was struggling and he didn't take a shot.  It's one thing to sacrifice some of your game for the team's good, but the team needed offense.  In one sequence, there was a rebound that was batted around out to the top of the key.  Wallace froze, couldn't decide whether to go for the loose ball or fall back on defense.  Milwaukee got the ball and the Buck that was running on the play was behind Wallace because he froze.  Wallace is a very instinctive player and his instincts were in deep freeze last night.

7.  The Greek Freak, Giannis Ate-whatevertherest, showed a wide range of talents last night.  He chased down Crawford on a breakaway and stuffed him and then ran all the way back up court for the dunk.  I didn't watch him as closely as I should have, but he certainly has some talents.

Truly, not much to like about this game except for Sully.  Crawford showed a little bit of ganas in the 2nd half of the 4th quarter but other than that all the ganas came from Sully.  Everybody else was sleep walking or just completely out-of-sync.

Sifting through the rubble for survivors, at least Atlanta lost. That, and that Hell Month is finally over.



bob


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Sully played hard, for the most part rest of the team barely showed up after the first quarter. Sully had I believe 15 points in the first half, he definitely went alittle too much long ball himself, but were stretches he was battling for position down low and had it and nobody could get him the ball. Take away his 3's he was 9-13 from the field, with that FG% and no defensive beast on their interior, Sully should have gotten more looks. I don't know why we jacked up so many outside shots when it wasn't on/working and Sully was getting whatever he wanted inside.

Vitor shows glimpses of being really good, but dosen't know intricacies of NBA game, he has some talent and size, wish we still had a Clifford Ray or someone to speed up his growth. All our bigs need to work on pick and roll defense and how to smother guard dribble penetration....maybe KG could come back as a bigman coach or defensive coordinator.