Houston Chronicle Sunday

Boston proving late rise no fluke

- By Kyle Hightower

BOSTON — The Celtics’ sweep of the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the playoffs underscore­d one thing about Boston’s late-season rise to the top tier of the NBA’s Eastern Conference: It was no fluke.

Leaning on the defensive brand cultivated under rookie coach Ime Udoka and punctuated by big scoring games by All-Star Jayson Tatum, Boston stymied a Brooklyn team that looked to be gaining lateseason momentum led by Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.

The only team to register a four-game sweep in the opening round, the Celtics are a conference­best 37-10 since their buzzer-beating loss to the Knicks on Jan. 6. They enter their second-round matchup with the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks playing their best basketball of the season.

Udoka said their performanc­e against a high-quality Nets team that wasn’t a typical No. 7 seed bodes well for them going forward.

“We understood this is the playoffs and we’re gonna have to play really good teams,” he said. “The only thing we talk about is we’re a basketball team, not a track team. We’re not running from people.”

That includes embracing the challenge of trying to slow reigning NBA Finals MVP Giannis Antetokoun­mpo and the Bucks. The teams haven’t met in a postseason series since 2019, which Milwaukee won 4-1 in what proved to be Irving’s final games in a Boston jersey.

They split their four regular-season meetings this season, though they never met each other at full strength or with the Celtics’ post-trade deadline starting lineup of Robert Williams, Al Horford, Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart on the floor. That group is 27-7 together this season but hasn’t faced Antetokoun­mpo with the kind of reliable outside shooters he now has around him.

“We alll know what Giannis is capable of, what he’s done, what he’s doing and what he’s gonna try to do,” Smart said. “For us it’s gonna take another team effort. With those guys he makes it really tough because of how aggressive he is and how he can get in the lane and not only create for himself but create for those other guys. Those guys are sitting there ready for him to serve it up on a platter.”

The Bucks rolled to a 4-1 win over Chicago in the first round, but one player the Celtics may not have to deal with is Khris Middleton, whose availabili­ty for this series remains uncertain. The three-time AllStar hasn’t played since spraining the medial collateral ligament in his left knee 10 days ago in Game 2 against the Bulls.

Since Tatum and Brown’s first season together in Boston in 2017-18, Middleton has averaged 22.4 points and shot 52 percent from the field in two playoff series against the Celtics.

But coach Mike Budenholze­r said what he contribute­s on the defensive end is just as hard to replace.

“I do think he’s underrated in what he does defensivel­y, including in big stretches of games, important moments, guarding the best wings,” Budenholze­r said. “He takes a lot of pride in being a good defender.”

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