The Boston Celtics earned their most impressive win since the NBA All-Star break, defeating the Milwaukee Bucks 140-99 on Thursday night.
Boston did right by its Eastern Conference leader bid, cutting Milwaukee’s gap to two games with just five left on the regular season schedule. After entering the contest with a gut-wrenching loss to a severely undermanned Washington Wizards team, the C’s shocked a Milwaukee home crowd by running the Bucks off the floor.
Jaylen Brown, who’s risen to the occasion as the leader in Joe Mazzulla’s lineup recently, dropped 30 points on 13-of-20 shooting from the field with five rebounds and as many assists. Afterward, the 26-year-old All-Star highlighted a few areas he hopes to see the team apply emphasis on before the playoff train arrives.
“All we gotta do is just continue to play basketball, take care of details, hone in and try to reach our full potential,” Brown told reporters, per NBC Sports Boston video. “It’s never too late for stuff like that.”
By night’s end, all Celtics starters — Brown, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, Marcus Smart and Derrick White — finished with a positive plus-minus, including four reserve unit contributors — Grant Williams, Sam Hauser, Robert Williams III and Malcolm Brogdon.
Boston also shot 56% from the floor, including 51.2% from beyond the arc and 80% from the charity stripe. But perhaps most importantly, the Celtics limited their turnover total to just eight in comparison to 13 committed by the Bucks.
“I think we’ve been pretty consistent all year long for the most part,” Brown said. “We’d probably be closer to 60 wins at this point but I think we’re a better team than we were last year. I think we won more games than we did last year and overall we haven’t dropped the ball.”
The Celtics, searching for a last-minute hot stretch to establish their identity, are back in action Friday night, hosting the Utah Jazz. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET from TD Garden.
