The Milwaukee Bucks might feel reassured by turning a 21-point Boston Celtics lead into a one-possession difference at the final buzzer in Wednesday night's 122-119 final, but that'd be disingenuous.
Sure, the Bucks went up against the Celtics without two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo by their side, meaning Milwaukee was far from at full strength. Then again, Boston didn't have Jrue Holiday, the team's defensive captain, and Sam Hauser, fresh off draining a career-best 10 threes just 48 hours prior. So the much-anticipated implications of a potential Eastern Conference finals preview between Boston and Milwaukee fell off significantly when Jaylen Brown took the initiative and aggressively pressed Damian Lillard at full-court in the first quarter to set the tone.
In response to Brown's opening defensive move, the Bucks buckled on that end of the floor -- and massively.
Ever since Milwaukee's front office got desperate to keep Antetokounmpo satisfied following his offseason threats to bail on the team, the wound of Jrue Holiday's eventual move from the Bucks to Boston has grown. No longer can Milwaukee rely on Holiday's defensive cheat code which erases opposing teams from effectively setting screens and creates a nightmare for others in 1-on-1 matchups.
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You can't replace that overnight and in Milwaukee's current instance, it can't be replaced over the course of an offseason's tail-end or by February's NBA trade deadline either. That storyline followed the Bucks in the early stages of the 2023-24 season and returned once again to Boston's advantage, helping the Celtics extend their winning streak to seven consecutive games.
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Before tip-off, Bucks head coach Doc Rivers set the record straight.
"You can't (replace Holiday). That was one of the first things I said, like, we're not gonna run the Jrue Holiday defense," Rivers emphasized. "... It forces you to play differently. Jrue's ability to pressure the ball up the floor, we don't have that. We don't have the guards that can get over screens. So it forces us to play different and we're still learning that."
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Milwaukee applied a heavy emphasis on "still."
The Celtics did cough up a significant double-digit lead, but what stood out even more was the constant openings for picture-perfect scoring opportunities that resulted from an atrocious Bucks defense. It quickly became amateur hour as Milwaukee miserably attempted to run a zone defense that routinely saw one or two players out of position. Playing a sloppy game of trying to pressure Boston's ball-handler for the moment, allowed for a handful of open 3-point chances that weren't countered to the standard the Celtics have lived up to.
Boston connected on 18-of-40 threes (45%), missing a handful of highly efficient setups that didn't speak volumes on the Celtics blowing a late-game lead (nearly) as much as it encapsulated Milwaukee's biggest blemish: defense. Rivers hasn't figured out how to rotate or implement a duo at the perimeter that can help subdue pick-and-rolls from opposing offenses. The help defense is just as useless and the more creative the Bucks try to get, the more getting defensive stops seems foreign to them.
That made all the difference in the final minutes of regulation when Milwaukee's Bobby Portis cut Boston's lead down to two points with 32.1 seconds left. When it mattered the most, the Bucks were clueless on the defensive end of the floor and it cost them.
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"The guys did a great job organizing the spacing versus the zone, which forced (the Bucks) to get distorted a little bit," Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said postgame. "... Obviously they're playing (zone) to throw us off rhythm and get to different things and I thought we got some good looks against the zone. I thought there were a couple of plays that didn't go our way."
Mazzulla added: "Once we were able to, kind of, distort the spacing and get to what we wanted -- Jayson (Tatum) with the ball at the top and making plays -- we were able to get to some things there."
Brown drew a critical foul and connected on two key free throws to push Boston's lead back up to four points, which signaled the end of a potential push for overtime from Milwaukee. In failing to establish an effective defensive response that didn't dismantle what Rivers' playbook envisioned, the Bucks self-sabotaged a chance at reassuring themselves rather than falling to the ongoing stigma that's repeatedly come to life.
Featured image via Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports Images
