Tatum and Brown lead Celtics for stunning 140-99 victory over NBA’s top-ranked Bucks
The Boston Celtics put on a show Thursday night as they steamrolled the NBA-leading Milwaukee Bucks 140-99. Jayson Tatum scored 40 points and Jaylen Brown added 30 to lead the way for the Celtics, who shot an impressive 22 of 43 from 3-point range.
The victory moved the Celtics within two games of the Bucks in the Eastern Conference standings, and more importantly, gave them the season series 2-1, which would give Boston the tiebreaker if both teams finished with the same record.
Boston’s performances in those three games against Milwaukee should give them plenty of confidence they could knock out the Bucks again if they meet in the postseason. The Celtics beat the Bucks in seven games in last season’s East semifinals, and they looked like they could do it again on Thursday night.
Milwaukee took a hit on the floor as well as in the standings. Khris Middleton left the game midway through the third quarter after taking an elbow to the face from Brown. The play resulted in a charging foul on Brown and caused Middleton to receive stitches on his upper lip.
Boston built a commanding 114-74 lead through three periods, causing most of the starters for both teams to sit out the entire fourth quarter. Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 24 points, but it wasn’t enough to keep his team in the game.
The Bucks were coming off a 149-136 victory at Indiana in which they shot a season-high 62.4% from the floor, but they found the going much tougher on Thursday. Antetokounmpo shot just 11 of 27, including 0 for 5 from 3-point range, and Jrue Holiday finished with just six points after starting his night with a 3-pointer.
After a back-and-forth first 8½ minutes, the Celtics went on a 29-9 run over the last seven-plus minutes of the first quarter to take control of the game. Boston capped that spurt by scoring 13 straight points, and they never let up the rest of the night.
Milwaukee’s Thanasis Antetokounmpo was ejected with 1:25 left in the game for head-butting Boston’s Blake Griffin. The head-butting came after Griffin committed a flagrant-1 foul against Antetokounmpo.
The victory matched the Bucks’ most uneven loss of the season, as they fell 142-101 at Memphis on Dec. 15. The Celtics, on the other hand, showed that they can be a force to be reckoned with in the playoffs if they continue to play as they did on Thursday night.
2024-10-09 09:30 PM
