The Boston Celtics lost their first game in the TD Garden by double-digits since Nov. 24 against the Brooklyn Nets- a team the Celtics handled in the first-round of the playoffs without any trouble. The same unfortunately can’t be said for the start of the second-round semifinal series against Milwaukee, however.
The Boston Celtics just need to play smarter and harder while limiting the self-inflicted mistakes that Milwaukee will take advantage of.
It’s fair to say the Celtics were completely caught off guard by the energy and physicality the Bucks played with. As a result, The Celtics were handed a healthy dose of a reality check on Sunday afternoon by the Bucks who came through and won 101-89 to take the first game of the series in Boston.
To put it into better words, Jaylen Brown said that they [Celtics] “got punched in the mouth” and they need to come back from this in the next game.
One of the more surprising takeaways from this game is the lack of second-chance opportunities the Celtics couldn’t take advantage of. The Bucks scored 21 more points than the Celtics did from missed shots or turnovers (27-6).
In a game that turned out to be a 12-point loss, there’s a chance the Celtics could’ve won had they grabbed more second-chance opportunities and capitalized off of Milwaukee’s 13 turnovers.
A big factor in Boston getting those second-chance opportunities is Robert Williams- who only had eight rebounds in the game. It’s worth mentioning that Williams took some abuse in this game and that could attribute why he had an off night as he’s still making his full recovery after coming back from knee surgery.
As a whole, the team was too slow offensively and failed to attack the paint- resulting in settling for shots rather than creating the shots they wanted to take. They won’t be able to just “settle” for anything against the Bucks. Boston will need to get into their formations quicker and move the ball around the floor more often.
Once the ball gets going around the court and someone starts to heat up, the kick-out option becomes available for a shooter to be open on the outside. However, that only works when the right pass is made. Check out the clip below.
Brown drove to the lane and went up against a wall that is Giannis Antetokounmpo resulting in him causing a turnover. However, Grant Williams was wide open in the corner had Brown seen him there to make the right pass.
A lot of Boston’s struggles in the first game of this series were mostly self-inflicted. The Bucks played great defense throughout and it deserves to be recognized, however the Celtics were just off from the start. It’s hard to believe the Celtics will play that poorly again during the playoffs.
With a few readjustments, there’s no doubt that the Boston Celtics can even this series out with a win in game two on Tuesday evening in Boston.
Be sure to follow us on Twitter @CelticsFiles for up to date Celtics content all the time!
The Celtics Files 