Celtics force Game 7 behind Tatum
Boston star nets 46 to thwart another Bucks comeback
MILWAUKEE — Jayson Tatum scored 46 points, outdueling Giannis Antetokounmpo and making sure there wouldn’t be another Milwaukee Bucks fourthquarter comeback, and the Boston Celtics beat the defending champions, 108-95, Friday night at Fiserv Forum to force a seventh game in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
The third consecutive victory for a road team sets up a winner-take-all game Sunday at TD Garden in Boston. The victor heads to Miami to begin an Eastern Conference Finals matchup Tuesday with the topseeded Heat.
Boston showed its grit by bouncing back two nights after blowing a 14-point, fourth-quarter lead in a 110107 Game 5 home loss. The Bucks tried to rally again after trailing by 14 points in the final period, but this time Tatum kept the Celtics on top and kept their season alive.
Antetokounmpo had 44 points, 20 rebounds and 6 assists. His 20 rebounds were one off his career high.
Jaylen Brown scored 22 and Marcus Smart had 21 for the Celtics, who capitalized on their superiority from 3-point range. The Celtics were 17 of 43 and the Bucks 7 of 27 from beyond the arc.
Antetokounmpo tried to lead the Bucks to a second improbable comeback in a row.
Boston led, 84-70, in the opening minute of the fourth quarter and was up,
84-73, when officials ruled Grant Williams had drawn a charge for Antetokounmpo’s fifth foul. But the Bucks challenged the call and it was overturned on replay, instead sending Antetokounmpo to the line with four fouls.
Antetokounmpo made both free throws to start an 80 run that got the Bucks back into the game. The Bucks
trimmed the margin to 85-81 on Antetokounmpo’s 3pointer with 8:42 left.
Tatum wouldn’t let the Bucks get any closer.
After that 8-0 Bucks spurt, Tatum scored the Celtics’ next 11 points. That included a fadeaway jumper as the shot clock expired to get the lead back to six plus a couple of 3-pointers.
Tatum and Brown each hit a 3-pointer during an 8-0 spurt that closed with Smart’s jumper that made it 100-87 with 4:20 remaining.
Boston maintained a double-digit edge the rest of the way.
The Celtics played without forward/center Robert Williams for a third consecutive game.
Celtics coach Ime Udoka
said Williams suffered a bone bruise in his left knee while colliding with Antetokounmpo in Game 3.
Milwaukee was missing three-time All-Star forward Khris Middleton for a ninth consecutive game. Middleton sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee during Game 2 of the Bucks’ first-round series with the Chicago Bulls.