The Boston Celtics crushed the Milwaukee Bucks (99-140) this Thursday in a clash between the second and first in the East, respectively, and between favorite franchises to play for the ticket to the NBA Finals, on a night illuminated by forty points Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s Thirties.
The Celtics inflicted the Bucks’ worst loss of the year and hit the table with an offensive display and defense that disarmed the offensive power of the 2021 NBA champions, who just 24 hours earlier had scored 149 points against the Indiana Pacers .
Boston now sports a record of 53-24 for the 55-22 of the Bucks, leaders of the East, who would have home field advantage on their way to the ‘playoffs’.
This is a potentially decisive element. It was already last year, when the Celtics played the seventh game of the series against the Bucks at the Garden and eliminated them from the ‘playoffs’.
Tatum signed a monumental performance with forty points, eight rebounds and eight of ten three-point shots. Brown scored at least thirty points for the 22nd time this season and finished his game with thirty points, five rebounds, five assists.
The Celtics’ seventy total points came in just three quarters, for a team that signed its second best scoring performance of the season.
It was a monologue for the Celtics from the beginning, who took an eight-point lead in the first quarter and increased it to 28 with a 41-21 second quarter that put victory on track.
Tatum and Brown scored at will and maintained a success rate of over 65% against a completely outmatched Bucks, in which the Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 24 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
A clear message was sent by the Celtics, who have won 35 games of 38 when they topped 120 points this year. His maximum advantage was 49 points against the Bucks who lost Khris Middleton in the third period after receiving a strong blow to the mouth.
The duel was already widely sentenced, but that did not prevent sparks from flying between the two franchises. In the fourth segment, Blake Griffin and Thanasis Antetokounmpo faced each other after a hard foul by the former.
Antetokounmpo reacted and the referees called him a flagrant type two foul. Griffin also received a flagrant one. Giannis’ brother was ejected and the Celtics got to pick a Bucks player to go to the foul line.
The clash ended with a 41-point lead for the Celtics, who still have slim chances of reaching the lead, with five games remaining in the regular season.
“We wanted to be aggressive, we knew they were coming from a ‘back to back’ (two games in two days), we wanted to attack them and that’s what we did,” Jaylen Brown said at the end of the duel.
“We want to go all the way in the ‘playoffs’ and these are the rivals we have to beat. We have been playing well and we have to continue enjoying ourselves on the court,” he added.
