C’s must bring it home
Need to match B’s in Game 7
MILWAUKEE — The Celtics have put their backs against elimination — but their feet against the parquet.
Their first-round series against the Bucks has come down to one game, courtesy of last night’s 97-86 loss to Milwaukee and a perfect holding of serve at home through the first six games.
The Sham- rocks had several opportunities to shake off their hosts, but poorly timed intellectual naps — and a whole lot of Giannis Antetokounmpo — combined to give us a Game 7.
The Celts can only hope the Garden does for them what it did for the Bruins in a win-or-offseason duel with Toronto two nights ago. Then, too, the C’s would be well served to take the lead from their neighbors down the hall and get a body on their foe more often. Better puck control would be a plus, as well.
The Celtics certainly had their opportunities to take care of things here and lock up the Bradley Center for good before the Bucks move next door next season. But the gym got a reprieve with a “moving” performance by the locals, who outscored the Celts, 25-4, in fast-break points and generally blunted the Bostonians at every turn.
It is, of course, not the end of the world for the C’s, who were, in all fairness, expected to have a difficult time in this series without Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward and Daniel Theis, and Marcus Smart for the first four games.
It is important to note that the last champions from the 617 area code lost their first six postseason road games before winning at Detroit in the conference finals.
It is even more important to note that these are not the 2007-08 Celtics.
There were stretches of simple Celtic brilliance — Al Horford hitting a hook over Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum finding Jaylen Brown for a layup and Horford feeding a cutting Tatum to bring the Celtics all the way back from 14 down to a 61-61 tie.
Then followed the stretches that had Brad Stevens thinking that marketing gig at Eli Lilly wasn’t so bad after all. Like when the Bucks scored 13 of the next 17 points.
“Whenever we were stagnant, we weren’t very good,” said Stevens. “Whenever we held the ball for . . . whenever one person had the ball for a second or two, it was bad news for us.
“We had a stretch there, middle of third to middle of the fourth where we had some tremendous possessions. The ball was really popping. And then we stopped. That was part of our undoing. I thought that
CELTICS BEAT Steve Bulpett
clearly their speed and athleticism affected us, and they were quicker to the ball all night for us.”
Added the coach, “If we don’t play with super effort defensively and super connectivity and we don’t move the ball, we’re going to go in some major lulls — and those lulls will beat us.”
Three times in this series, so far.
Here’s a microcosm of how it went for the Celtics: Down 11 a little more than two minutes into the second half, Brown tried to make a statement by taking it all the way in for a dunk against the 7-foot-1 Thon Maker instead of protecting the ball with his body for a layup and maybe even a chance at a three-point play.
Maker and the rim got in the way, and a frustrated Brown went back to the other end of the floor, where he made an ill-advised try for a help-out steal on Malcolm Brogdon. That left Khris Middleton way open for a trey and a 55-41 Bucks lead.
But there was early evidence that the Celts didn’t have it all together.
And Stevens didn’t wait to let them know.
Brown had started the night’s scoring with a turnaround from the lane, but soon enough the C’s had settled into their Milwaukee malaise. And the coach was in no mood.
A turnover led to a 2-on1 break for the Bucks, and a bad shot led to a Maker dunk and a mere 4-2 Celtics shortfall. So 2:26 after the opening tip — after two days of drilling into his lads the necessities for dealing with their opponent — Stevens had to call a timeout to offer some reminders.
Then Terry Rozier banked in a trey, Tatum lost Antetokounmpo and made the short spin to a three-point play, and Horford up-faked Middleton and dunked. And the Celts were rolling on the way to a nine-point lead.
But vigilance is a must in road playoff games, and, with the Brad Boys again on brain freeze, the Bucks ended the quarter on a 7-0 run.
The C’s were struggling in the next quarter, but took a 37-34 lead on Rozier’s fourth 3-pointer. Then they pocketed their pose again, scoring just two points over the final 5:08 of the half while the Bucks scored 14 and took a 48-39 lead into the break.
“Sports are a funny thing because there’s two teams playing,” said Stevens later. “You’re not out there by yourself trying to perform a job. You’re out there with a lot of duress, and those guys put us in those positions. I don’t want to act like we can control everything that we’re talking about. They did stuff to us that was very, very effective.”
Probably more effective than it should have been, which is why the Celtics are on the precipice of both elimination and advancement tomorrow night on Causeway Street.