In the Celtics second game against the Bucks in their last three games, Boston once again took care of business in Milwaukee, winning 117-97. After a slow start, Boston was able to turn it on and eventually take down the Bucks with some hot three point shooting and great defense. This was easily the only game that mattered today when it came to teams from Massachusetts and Wisconsin facing off. Everyone knows a Celtics regular season win over the Bucks means more than a Packers win over the Patriots.
1. Celtics Locked In
The Celtics had every reason to overlook this game on the schedule with their looming matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday November 10th, and early on it might have looked like the case. The Bucks started the game on a 20-6 run including Kyle Kuzma exploding for 14 points. Unlike the Patriots, the Celtics did not let an early deficit dictate their game, as Boston fought back to make it a 2 point game at the end of the first quarter.
Boston would proceed to go on a 20-7 run to begin the second quarter and that was essentially the game. The Celtics would open it up to a 23-point lead in the third quarter and close out with a 20-point win in the forth quarter. It’s always good to see a team bounce back early after facing adversity early and the Celtics were able to pull it off in this matchup.
2. Running Out of Words for Paul George
After the Celtics last game against the Bucks where Paul George scored 25 points and hit the dagger in the fourth quarter, I wrote an article talking about how important he was to this team and how he is still playing at an elite level. I am back to say, Paul George is still elite. George led Boston with 27 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals on 11-18 shooting from the field and 5-10 from three.
George made his presence known on the scoring end, finishing with 20 points in the first half alone. In the second quarter specifically, he went off for 16 points on 6-9 shooting from the field and 4-6 shooting from three. The Bucks defensive game plan of leaving Jamie Jaquez Jr on an island did not work out well for him as George just looked like he was playing at his own pace. The midrange shot was a thing of beauty and his work in the pick and roll was a good way of getting the Celtics offense going early on.
This was a good opening act for the main show on Tuesday as George goes back to Philadelphia for the first time since he was traded to Boston in the offseason. In the postgame interview on NBC Sports Boston, George was his asked his thoughts on the game where he said, “It will be fun…great relationships over there…a rough tenure in my 2 years there but it will be special to be in the building.” I am all in on the Paul George Redemption Arc in Boston and this game gave me everything love about PG so far. Would love to see it carry over against Philly.
3. Jayson Tatum’s Three Ball is Coming Back
Jayson Tatum is having an MVP-level start to his 2026-27 season and his offensive game looks a lot more advanced than it did last season coming off the Torn Achilles. However, the only thing that hasn’t looked great to start the season is his three-point shooting. It doesn’t look like there is anything structurally wrong with his jump shot, they just aren’t going in.
Tatum was shooting 28.6% from three going into this matchup against Milwaukee but they were falling in this game as he finished with 21 points on 5-11 shooting from beyond the arc. Tatum was on fire from beyond the arc to begin the game, finishing the first quarter 4-6 from three. He didn’t shoot another one until the third quarter where he hit his fifth three of the night. The final box score number won’t reflect it, but Tatum is shooting 10-19 in his last two games and is looking more and more like his old self every game. We are due for Tatum three-point avalanche soon, and it will be glorious when it happens.
One thing that has continued to impress me about Tatum this year is his passing. Even shots the Celtics don’t hit, it feels like Tatum is always making the right decision when it comes to finding the open guy at the perimeter when he is driving to the basket. This game marks the 10th straight game where he has had 6 or more assists, and is the longest such streak since the little guy, Isaiah Thomas back in the 2015-16 season. We are really continuing to see Jayson Tatum get better as a player and I would say that he is the best passing forward in the entire NBA.
4. Mitchell Robinson’s Best Game as a Celtic
There has been some scrutiny with the early season play of Mitchell Robinson so far this year and there were times where just didn’t look like he fit at all on the Celtics. Whether it was injury or just getting into shape, he just hasn’t looked to have found his footing in Boston’s system. However, Robinson showed out with the best game of his Celtics tenure so far, finishing with 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals in 18 minutes on 6-6 shooting and a +19.
The first quarter saw Robinson looking engaged early on the glass. He got a put-back layup in his first opportunity on the offensive end and had 2 steals, one of which on an inbound pass that led to a Tatum three. As the game went on we saw him get more and more comfortable on the offensive end, resulting in arguably the play of the night. He found Tatum on the block with a bounce pass and then cut hard to the basket to catch an alley-oop slam in a play that looked straight out of NBA Street. Hopefully, we get to see more of this version of Mitch moving forward. If he continues to play like this, the Celtics offense will be unstoppable.
5. Derrick White Hustle Plays
One thing we know about Derrick White is that he always going to do the little things on the court well. He stuffed the stat-sheet in this game against the Bucks, finishing with 9 points, 7 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 blocks on 4-10 shooting. One of the best parts of his game in this one was the fact he made so many plays he had no business getting to.
The first play came in the second quarter and was worthy of a Tommy Point. Baylor Scheierman was blocked on a fast break layup and the ball was rolling out of bounds. Then Derrick White teleported from the three point line to the base line in seconds, saving the ball and finding Paul George underneath the basket for a layup. This was just an incredible acrobatic feat by White and you know Tommy Heinsohn would be freaking out on the broadcast if he saw it. Something like “My goodness, this Derrick White guy is incredible.”
The other play I wanted to highlight came in the same quarter with the Bucks on the fast break. Milwaukee’s rookie Nate Ament only had Jayson Tatum to beat for a fast break bucket but Derrick White came out of no where to make an incredible block. It was initially called a foul and overturned on review but this was the definition of White’s performance in this game. Just out working and out hustling everyone else on the court and it lead to Celtics success.
6. Offensive Rebounding
One of the biggest reasons why the Celtics were able to beat the Bucks in this game had to do with their offensive rebounding. Boston thoroughly out-rebounded Milwaukee in this matchup, 48-36 and you could tell just by watching. But the biggest thing for the Celtics was that out of their 48 rebounds, 20 of them came as offensive rebounds.
Mitchell Robinson and Neemias Queta combined for 9 of those boards and almost every player in the Celtics rotation had multiple. This led to more second chance opportunities for Boston to capitalize and resulted in them running up the score against Milwaukee. It was a big stand out for me and it further cemented the great play of the Celtics bigs in this game.
7. Neemias Queta Shot Creation
I just praised Queta’s rebounding ability in this game, but his scoring was also an interesting watch. He finished with 13 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 assists on 6-11 shooting in 22 minutes. This game started about as bad as it could for Queta, with only 1 point on 0-4 shooting in the first quarter and almost all of this missed shots were easy layups or defended well by Myles Turner.
However, he found a groove as the game went on and it was his pick and roll navigation that got him going. The Iberian Peninsula connects on a lob where Hugo Gonzalez made a great pass to Queta for a slam. We saw him then be more aggressive when it came to going downhill, including a dunk where the entire Bucks team just watched him go down the lane. We also saw a midrange fadeaway out of him in this game and that shocked me the most. We know he’s already taking threes this season, but I feel like the midrange shot could be an even more dangerous weapon in Queta’s arsenal. Would love to see it come out more this season and I just like the fact he has been able to showcase more of his skills on offense when it comes to creatitng his own shot.
8. Sam Hauser Sorcery
Sam Hauser has sneakily had a very good start to his season so far, averaging 7.7 points on 45.2% shooting from three point range. He played a good game for Boston in this one as well, finishing with 7 points on 3-5 shooting but there was one play in the third quarter that he made me incredibly shocked.
As the final seconds were ticking down, normally Boston would go to Tatum or Pritchard for a buzzer beating shot. But this time, the ball ended up in Hauser’s hands and he put up an insane left handed running layup and it was good. Definitely not the play that would have been drawn up in this situation, but it worked. As Hauser hit the 2022 Marcus Smart staring at his left hand going back to the bench, I had no idea how he made that shot.
I don’t know if it was being back in his home state of Wisconsin, playing in the arena where he played most of his college ball at Marquette, or maybe it was the Packers win today, but Hauser was moving different on this shot. It had me quoting John Wall in his postgame interview to Bradley Beal, “I ain’t never ever seen you act like this before.” We need to see more And-1 Mixtape Sam Hauser this season, just because it is such a great surprise when it happens.
9. Is Payton Pritchard Finding His Shot?
One thing about garbage time during the fourth quarter is that it gives bench guys an opportunity to play and show off their skills that they could use as momentum moving forward. One guy who got a lot of time to play in the fourth today was Payton Pritchard and he might have found something with his shot. On the season Pritchard has not lived up to a lot of the “all-star” expectations some people had and its mostly because of his shooting and is shooting 35% from three.
He has was shooting 3-24 from beyond the arc before he went 4-6 against Charlotte in this Celtics last game, seemingly looking like he fixed it. However, he was 4-11 against the Bucks in this matchup but in the fourth quarter he started to turn it on. Pritchard shot 3-5 from three in 8 minutes of the fourth quarter and looked a lot more comfortable than he had in the past. Hopefully this unlocked his shooting ability again as the Celtics are really going to need him to be an impact scorer again.
10. Mike Conley First Start
I love when Mike Conley gets to play for the Celtics but I never thought we would be seeing him start for the Celtics in the month of November. However, he did start in this game and was serviceable, finishing with 3 points and 3 rebounds on 1-2 shooting from three and even started the third quarter with Boston as well.
One thing I liked about Conley is his passing. He can still get it to guys on the roll in a hurry and it is obvious to see all of the experience he has had in the NBA so far. He kind of reminds me of when Blake Griffin was on the Celtics in the 2022-23 season. It’s just cool to see him in a Celtics uniform. However, I do not think he should be a main stay in the Celtics starting lineup. It does feel like this might have been a “throwaway game” and that’s why Conley got the start but who knows. Either way, good to see Conley out there contributing for Boston.
