Bucks vs. Celtics: Close, yet again, but no cigar

Khris Middleton’s return is spoiled in another close Boston loss

The Milwaukee Bucks offence sputtered in the fourth quarter as they lost a winnable game to the Boston Celtics, 111-105. Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo combined for 61 points, while Khris Middleton chipped in eleven points and five assists in 23 minutes of action. On the other side, Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 34 points, while Jaylen Brown and Jrue Holiday contributed 25 and 20, respectively. Read our full summary of the game here and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast Bucks In Six Minutes below.

What Did We Learn?

Obviously, we learned that Khris coming back is going to be a boost for Milwaukee, but I wanted to discuss Giannis and how he, as the head of the snake, can spearhead the effort to beat this damn team.

I thought this game was a positive step forward for the Bucks, and especially Antetokounmpo, in how to attack the Celtics’ switching defence. I’ll start by saying this, scoring against the Celtics is the basketball equivalent to brain surgery. OK, maybe that’s a bit much, but you catch my drift. The Celtics have very few holes in their defence, but if you move the ball enough and create wrinkles in the defence, there are options to attack. What are those options? I would say there are two key weaknesses:

Firstly, Boston will competently switch 1-4, so you must involve the centres (Horford, Queta) in action and force them to double or switch with their fives, and then you’re in business. I thought Milwaukee did relatively well at that by having Dame attack those guys in the high pick-and-roll.

The other option is to play bully ball. Boston plays four guards/wings and one centre most of the time. They don’t actually have anyone perfect to guard Giannis, and this is a risk they feel prepared to take. Why? Honestly, I think it’s because I don’t think they believe Antetokounmpo is smart/savvy enough to 1) consistently draw the correct mismatches and 2) effectively beat those mismatches. And although he wasn’t perfect last night, this was, by far, Giannis’ most composed game attacking this defence, in my opinion.

Three Giannis Observations

Giannis’ mismatch game giveth.

So, as I mentioned above, the Celtics believe they can guard Giannis with guards and wings. Remember last season’s first game in Boston? He ended that game shooting 7/20. Antetokounmpo was frankly playing out of control, I thought. Boston tried to take him out of his comfort zone and speed him up, and it worked. But this game, anecdotally, it felt like he much more methodically backed down his man until he got himself into a position to score. Look at this example:

He catches it way further than he’d want to from the bucket, but patiently backs down (crucially, without losing balance) while his eyes are lasered in on the middle of the floor, meaning the other defenders were scared to leave their man. And he just keeps going until he can turn and elevate over Jrue. Where in previous seasons, he might have rushed it, turned baseline maybe, and allowed that help to cram him in.

Giannis’ mismatch game taketh away.

Although majority of Antetokounmpo’s reads as they pertain to mismatch-hunting were positive, there were some moments where I thought he reverted to some of his old habits. Here’s the first thing: I can probably count on one hand, maybe two, the number of truly great Giannis-defenders in the NBA. Guys like Bam Adebayo and Anthony Davis come to mind. These are guys where I am affirmatively like, “do not, under almost any circumstance, take these guys one-on-one and expect to score; move them around and make them defend.” Well, God love him, Al Horford falls onto that last for me, which sucks to still be saying in the year of our Lord, 2024, but it is true. I am confident Antetokounmpo can score on basically anyone else on that roster if he is patient, because the majority of the other options are simply too small—just not Horford. And yet, there were still a few too many attempts at beating Al in this one. And in a game of inches when you play the Celtics, those possessions would have been better utilised attacking elsewhere. This isn’t to say that Giannis alone lost them the game or anything, though.

Breaking down Giannis’ late-game three.

As we know, Antetokounmpo has a belief that he can make any shot, which is why he is who he is in this league. But we don’t need to complicate this more than it needs to be, a 28% three-point shooter heaving a dribble-up triple after a hard-fought stop with 1:40 in the clock and a one-point deficit is about as bad of a decision one can make. And of course, the Celtics come down and you-know-who hits the dagger five seconds later. With Damian Lillard and Khris Middleton on the court, Giannis chose to call his own number from three. I mean, what in the world? And to add insult to injury, he said, given the chance, he’d do it all over again…

“Coming down, seeing Al Horford backing up, I felt like I could make it, shot it. It went well, in my opinion. S**t, if I had the chance, I’d shoot it again. I’d shoot it again. I’ve made it multiple times, so I’d shoot it again.”

Bonus Bucks Bits

• Khris had eleven points, five assists, and three rebounds on 2/10 shooting. Doesn’t seem all that great, but I thought he looked pretty solid out there, all things considered.
• Bobby Portis had one of the stranger stat lines: nine points, three assists, and eighteen (!) rebounds. And somehow a TEAM-BEST +7 in plus/minus. I’m leaving that one with y’all.
• Andre Jackson Jr. playing just twelve minutes is notable, and I can’t say I thought it was necessarily a bad decision in this particular game.
• Taurean Prince went out with sickness, which he had been dealing with for a few games now.
• Delon Wright’s minutes were eaten up by Middleton’s return.
• At least Milwaukee was able to neutralise usual Bucks-killer Payton Pritchard, who was the only Celtic who didn’t score in this one. Take that!
• Unrelated to this game, but this might be why Ryan Rollins has barely played since his injury:

Up Next

The Bucks have a day off before they head to New York to face the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 PM (Central). Catch the game on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin.

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