BOSTON — The Celtics are one of the deepest teams in the NBA, and through two games of their first-round playoff series against the Milwaukee Bucks, their bench has been a huge difference maker.
The Celtics’ second unit is outscoring the Bucks bench 68-48 through two games, and it’s one of the reasons why the C’s won Game 2 120-106 Tuesday night at TD Garden to take a 2-0 series lead.
Marcus Morris led the reserves with 18 points on 6-for-11 shooting (3-for-6 on 3-pointers), while Greg Monroe chipped in 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting and Shane Larkin added 11 points on 5-for-6 from the floor.
Boston’s bench tallied 45 points to the Milwaukee bench’s 25 points in Game 2.
Monroe, in particular, gave the C’s a nice boost. The Bucks went with small lineups featuring superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo at center for a lot of Game 1, which played a prominent role in Monroe getting just 10 minutes of playing time in the series opener.
Game 2 was a different story, as Monroe consistently beat his former teammates in the low post over 17 minutes of action.
“I thought he was good,” Celtics head coach Brad Stevens said of Monroe. “He missed film (Monday) because he was sick, so I don’t know if that was part of the reason he struggled in Game 1, but I thought he was really good (Tuesday). Very active, very aggressive, played through them on offense. And I thought defensively he got his hands on some balls, had a couple of blocks. He was very, very alert to what they were running.”
Larkin has turned out to be a stellar offseason signing by C’s president of basketball operations Danny Ainge. Injuries to key guards Kyrie Irving and Marcus Smart has forced Larkin into a bit of a larger role than anticipated, and he’s risen to the challenge.
Larkin’s scoring, perimeter defense and care for the ball — he had zero turnovers in 21 minutes Tuesday after some bad giveaways in Game 1 — played an integral part in Boston’s second win of the series.
“He was very good,” Stevens said of Larkin. “He’s been great defensively two straight games now, and then offensively I thought he found his rhythm. He attacked, beat people off the dribble on a number of occasions, made plays for himself and others, and played really aggressively.”
The Celtics have gone nine, 10 and even 11 players deep the entire season. Stevens has spread the minutes around very well to avoid his starters being fatigued late in the season and into the playoffs. The C’s have three or four bench players who are more than capable of making a positive impact at both ends of the floor in a playoff game.
The Bucks, at least through two games, haven’t enjoyed anywhere near the same production from their reserves. Jabari Parker has been a complete non-factor — he had zero points in 10 minutes Tuesday. Jason Terry and Tyler Zeller were scoreless six and five minutes, respectively, of action.
Second-year center Thon Maker has barely seen the floor with only one minute of playing time in the series. Maker was the No. 10 overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, the same one where Jaylen Brown, who scored a career-high 30 points for the C’s in Game 2, went third overall.
Malcolm Brogdon, who scored 10 points on 5-for-7 shooting, and Shabazz Muhammad, who added 11 points, were the only Bucks bench players to make a real impact in Game 2.
The Celtics have enough offensive firepower to play the Bucks starters even or win that matchup. That means Milwaukee must find more scoring off the bench, or this series could be over very quickly.
