The Celtics had an ample opportunity to take a commanding lead over the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Instead, Boston quite simply laid an egg, getting dominated by the Bucks in a 123-102 Game 2 loss that brought the series even.
Boston’s top players all seemed off their game as the C’s shot 39 percent from the floor in the game. On the other end, Giannis Antetokounmpo found his rhythm, with the Bucks outscoring Boston by 21 in the third quarter after trailing by just four at halftime.
But according to head coach Brad Stevens, the C’s were lucky to keep it close that long.
“Well I thought they dominated a lot in the first and we were lucky to be down four,” Stevens said, as seen on NBC Sports Boston’s postgame coverage. “I thought that they owned their space on both ends of the court better than we did, and I thought our reaction to that was to settle on offense and it led to some run outs and then it just steamrolled on us.
“They were great tonight, they deserved to win,” Stevens continued. “We need to look at what we need to do better. We knew that they were going to be really good tonight. We talked about matching their urgency and beating their urgency but we didn’t do that. Even in the first half, you could see, like, boy, we were lucky to be where we were, I thought.”
The Bucks did seem to have more intensity throughout the entire game, and things may have flipped on their head sooner had Milwaukee not started 7-for-20 from the floor. Needless to say, the Green will be hoping for a jolt of life as the series shifts back to Boston.
Here are some other notes from Celtics-Bucks Game 2:
— The Bucks had a pretty remarkable night from beyond the arc.
Milwaukee shot 42.6 percent from deep, hitting 20 3-pointers (the most the Celtics have allowed in a playoff game). Khris Middleton led the barrage with a 7-for-10 effort from downtown.
— It was an absolutely dreadful night for Kyrie Irving.
The Celtic’s star point guard never could get things going, and ended up putting in one of his worst performance with the Green.
Irving finished with just nine points, shooting 4-for-18 from the floor.
— Irving was far from the only Celtic that did not contribute offensively.
Jayson Tatum had just five points on 2-for-10 shooting. In fact, it’s been a pretty miserable start to the series for the 21-year-old.
— While it was a paltry offensive evening for the C’s, they arguably were even worse on the defensive end.
The Bucks put up 98 points after the first quarter. Boston also sent Milwaukee to the line 31 times.
— Boston needs a strong performance in Games 3 and 4 before the series returns to Milwaukee.
The Bucks have not dropped back-to-back games at home all season, which could spell trouble for the C’s if they fall behind in the series from here.
