It turns out that all of the Bucks fans that told me I was stupid this week were wrong, at least for today. The Celtics went into Milwaukee and absolutely battered the Bucks today, and stole home court.
The Celtics came out and played with a purpose today, quickly realizing that they weren’t playing against the poverty Pacers anymore. After trading baskets with the Bucks, they popped off a 17-3 run to take a quick lead. By the end of the first quarter, they found themselves up 9. They started the second quarter on the same note, quickly opening up a 15 point lead. From that point on, they were outscored 27-12 in the quarter. The Bucks just became unconscious from deep, and it sparked that 15-0 midway through the second quarter. However, that didn’t scare the Celtics, who came out of halftime on a mission. They once again traded baskets with the Bucks, until they were able to break off a 12-0 run. Milwaukee weathered the storm for a minute or two, but then the C’s went off again. This time it was a 19-3 swing. Once the third quarter came to an end, Boston found themselves up by 17 on the Bucks. They did a great job of keeping their distance in the fourth quarter, not allowing Milwaukee within 12 for the remainder of the game. Once the final horn went off, the lead had ballooned to 22 and the Celtics had captured home court advantage.
Overall, it was just a superb day from the Celtics. The offense was shakey early on, but found it’s rhythm later on, and the defense was exceptional. They held MVP frontrunner Giannis Antetokounmpo to 22 points on 7-21 from the field.
A large part of that defensive effort was Al Horford. Horford was Giannis’ primary defender today, and locked him down. Big Al tallied 3 blocks on the afternoon. He was also great offensively, pouring in 20 points on 8-16 from the field. Horford was a force on the glass as well, grabbing 11 rebounds in today’s victory.
Kyrie Irving led the way on the offensive end as usual with 26 points on 12-21 from the field. He was key early on when the C’s built up their first lead. He was also a big part of Horford’s big day, finding him over and over again on the pick and pop. Irving tallied 11 assists on the day, and had complete control over the game.
Jaylen Brown continued his great history against Milwaukee during the playoffs. He had a great day, scoring 19 points on 8-14 from the field. Like Horford, he did a solid job covering one of Milwaukee’s biggest scorers in Khris Middleton. Middleton scored just 16 points on 5-12 shooting. None of his baskets came easy when Jaylen was covering him.
Game 2 is on Tuesday night, and it will tip off at 8pm.
Thanks for reading!
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