Growing pains explain it
Another lesson for young C’s
MILWAUKEE — He wasn’t Scary Terry — not with 10 points on just 3-for12 shooting (2-for-10 of that on treys).
CELTICS BEAT Steve Bulpett
He wasn’t Talkative Terry. He didn’t, mistakenly or otherwise, call any Bucks by former Patriots’ names. Terry Rozier had outplayed Eric “Don’t Call Me Drew” Bledsoe, garnering eight assists and just one turnover, while the Milwaukee point guard’s nine points came with five assists and a turnover. More importantly, Rozier was a plus-4, and the Bucks were a minus-10 with Bledsoe on the court.
But there was no Celtic celebration yesterday after a 104-102 loss that knotted the first-round best-ofseven series at 2-2. The C’s had wounded themselves again early on, digging a 20-point hole and losing their poise for a second straight game here. And Terry wasn’t chatty. “We just got down early and were trying to fight back,” he said. “That’s about it.”
As for how the Celtics can keep from getting into these messes, how they can keep from getting out of control, he shrugged.
“I wish I knew the answer,” Rozier said. “There’s a million answers to that. Just can’t get down like that.”
He’s proven he can make tough shots and rumble with players far larger on defense, but, here in a quiet corner of the visitors dressing room at the Bradley Center, it was suggested that Jobs 1, 2 and 3 in Game 4 were patiently orchestrating the offensive flow and getting people in the right places.
And then the real Terry Rozier, the one Boston has come to know and embrace, returned to the conversation.
“Yeah, I mean, I’m going to do that regardless,” he said. “My only thoughts is beating their ass. That’s about it.”
After spending too much time here kicking their own, it is a necessary turnabout for the Celtics.
The Bucks are a tough enough matchup on their own. Giannis Antetokounmpo is other-worldly, and the best way to deal with him is to be far enough ahead at the end so his 8-for11 second half and late tipin can’t be the difference. Khris Middleton remains a problem when the Celtic defense rotates improperly and leaves him with open looks. And Jabari Parker and Thon Maker became problems off the Bucks bench in the games here.
But the Celts could have lived with all that and maybe even ended the series here if they’d been brighter with the ball. They led by seven in the first period, but again got suckered into foolish bucketry. They rushed up treys and drove into multiple Milwaukee defenders.
After committing 18 turnovers on Friday night, they gave the ball up just nine times yesterday. But the Bucks blocked 14 of their shots (13 in Game 3), which, when you consider how the C’s were out of control on many of their attempts, were Boston turnovers by a different name.
“I think you have to play with tremendous, tremendous poise,” said Brad Stevens. “It takes a ton of ability to bounce back and win the next possession and focus on that next possession, but, you know, I thought they got us off-kilter and we just started, again, trying to swing for the fences. We did a great job of not doing that in the second half though.”
As the Celtics left town, they were hugging tight to that second half. They will no doubt beat themselves up over the earlier video when they gather today, but they were grasping by their fingertips to something positive from their four days in Milwaukee.
They outscored the Bucks, 67-53, after halftime, extracting 13 points from six Milwaukee turnovers and surrendering the ball just three times themselves for no host points (albeit with seven more of their shots blocked). As they had at the Garden, the Celts survived Antetokounmpo’s freakiness, making him a minus-16 after the break while he scored 17 points.
“We played great in the second half,” said Stevens. “We played great in the first six minutes of the game, and the 18 minutes that ended the first half were not good. And they had a lot to do with that.”
Said Marcus Morris after 13 points, four rebounds and yet another technical, “You know, that happens — things in the game, runs, bad shots. (Expletive) happens. You’ve still got to be able to play through it and continue to stay together.
“Things just happen. You miss shots, you make shots, you rush sometimes. You know, we’re a young team, and we continue to move forward and we continue to learn from it.”
Al Horford worked hard to present the company line, as well.
“I think this was just another learning experience for our group,” he said. “I felt like the second half we were much better, more engaged in the things we needed to do. And I feel good going back home for Game 5.
“We’re learning as a group. We understand that we need to be better on the offensive end handling different situations, and it’s something that we’ll look at (on) film and see how we can be better (tomorrow).
“It’s tough, but those are part of the growing pains. And our group is a group that showed a lot of grit there in the second half, so I was very encouraged by that.”
It was either that or be depressed as hell that they screwed up any chance they had to make this a quick series.