With 5:26 remaining in the fourth quarter in Milwaukee, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla pulled all starters off the floor. It wasn’t a call to the bench to signal a job well done — it was an admission of defeat, an acknowledgment that Boston’s five-game winning streak had come to an end.
No Giannis Antetokounmpo for the Bucks and a sizzling-hot first-quarter start for the Celtics, yet Boston still fell short in its 116-101 loss at Fiserv Forum. After putting up 67 first-half points across back-to-back
30-plus-point quarters, Boston tumbled in the third, scoring only 13 points. That gave Milwaukee’s shorthanded squad life during its own (discouraging) streak — the Bucks entered Thursday’s contest having lost seven of their last 10 games, the most of any Eastern Conference team over that span.
“We went on ice,” Jordan Walsh admitted.
It was a tale of two halves for the Celtics — two completely different halves. In the first half, they shot 52.4% from the field and 47.8% from three, assisting on 12 baskets. In the second half, their shooting went cold: Boston managed just 26.1% from the floor and 11.5% from beyond the arc, slicing its assist total in half with only six in the final 24 minutes.
Two halves, two completely different teams wearing the same Celtics uniform.
“I wouldn’t say any of the looks were bad looks,” Walsh said. “I feel like the shots we took — if we take those again next game, a lot of them are going in. It just happened tonight that we got them up and they didn’t fall. But as easily as they didn’t fall, they could just as easily go the other way and go in. We’ve got to find a way to retune ourselves, get stops on the other end, and create advantages — maybe in second-chance points or whatever it may be — to try to affect the game.”
In terms of locating shot opportunities, Boston had no shortage whatsoever. The team’s 3-point attempts actually increased from 23 in the first half to 26 in the second. The problem was simple: the Celtics just weren’t hitting their shots. Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, Sam Hauser, and Anfernee Simons combined to go 0-for-19 from three. Hauser, in particular, wrapped up the night scoreless after missing all 10 of his shot attempts, logging 22 minutes off the bench.
Giannis, amid the latest wave of trade speculation, watched what could have been another ugly Bucks defeat turn into a sign of encouragement, as his team showed the determination to overcome the hottest team in the conference without its franchise superstar.
Boston could only reflect, regroup, and look ahead.
“It’s not our night,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “We’ve played some good basketball, and we have an understanding of when we’re at our best. Tonight, we got a taste of when we’re not at our best. So we’ll get back to work, continue to work at it, but it’s just one of those. It’s not our night, and we’ll move on to the next one.”
Bucks forward Kyle Kuzma took it upon himself to step up in Giannis’ absence. From the jump, he made his presence felt, engaging in a playful — yet fierce — back-and-forth with Brown over the four-time Boston All-Star’s Twitch streaming activities.
“This is not a stream,” Kuzma shouted at Brown in the first quarter, sparking a night-long exchange between the two.
Kuzma finished with a game-high (and season-best) 31 points for Milwaukee, shooting 13-of-17 from the field and adding six rebounds to derail Boston’s pursuit of a sixth straight win.
The rest of the Bucks followed Kuzma’s lead. Milwaukee shot a dominant 62.9%, including 7-for-12 from beyond the arc (58.3%), erasing Boston’s early edge and building a cushion that kept Brown and the Celtics at bay until the final buzzer. Just as the Celtics went from formidable to frail, the Bucks went from playing catch-up to running circles around them.
“Milwaukee played with more force than us tonight,” Brown said. “I don’t think we eased our way into the game. We had a good start, but you’ve got to have a harder-playing mentality all the way through. You can’t take games for granted. Anything can happen on any given night. Just because we’ve had some success doesn’t mean we have the privilege of not winning the margins or casually going through the game.”
The loss didn’t serve as a setback of great significance for the Celtics in the grand scheme. They still possess the No. 3 seed in the East, although the gap between Boston and the No. 2 seed Knicks now sits at 2½ games.
If anything, it was a missed opportunity — a tough pill to swallow given that Milwaukee outplayed Boston without its strongest weapon available. Still, Mazzulla isn’t dwelling on it. With a three-day break awaiting the Celtics as they head home from Milwaukee, he’s more focused on the reset than the regret.
“They’re obviously the No. 1 three-point shooting team in the league, so they spread you out and force you to decide how you’re going to guard the ball,” Mazzulla said. “They test your individual defense, they test your angles, and they kick out. They had some great shot-making tonight, but a lot of it came from their ability to break us down, spread us out, and make passes for open shots.”
