Boston bite back but Adams says goodbye
Jayson Tatum wouldn’t let it happen again. With the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks attempting to complete a fourth-quarter comeback for the second straight game and close out their Eastern Conference semifinal, Tatum made sure the Boston Celtics instead kept their season alive yesterday and forced a decisive seventh game.
Tatum scored 46 points and the Celtics withstood a brilliant showing from Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo to win 108-95, the third straight victory for a road team in this thrilling series.
“I wasn’t going to leave anything out there and have any regrets,” Tatum said. “Just trying to do what it took.”
After the Bucks reduced a 14-point deficit to four with just under nine minutes left, Tatum took over the game. He scored 16 of Boston’s 26 fourth-quarter points.
“He was unbelievable,” said Antetokounmpo, who was pretty extraordinary in his own right with
44 points, 20 rebounds and six assists.
Tatum’s effort sets up a winnertake-all match tomorrow in Boston. The victor heads to Miami to begin an East finals match-up with the topseeded Heat on Wednesday.
“I don’t think anybody’s won two games in a row in this series,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Now, it’s the finality. You’ve got to go and find a way to get that fourth win and win the series. I think everybody in sport looks for that game. That college feel. That NCAA feel, where if you lose, your season’s done, if you win, you keep going. It’s exciting.”
The Bucks had won all eight of their potential series clinchers in Budenholzer’s four-year tenure before yesterday. Boston showed grit by bouncing back two nights after blowing a 14-point, fourth-quarter lead in a 110-107 Game 5 home loss. The Bucks tried to rally again after trailing by 14 in the final period, but this time, the Celtics stayed in front.
“This will be the first night since that game that I’ll get some sleep,” said Marcus Smart, who had 21 points, seven assists and no turnovers.
Antetokounmpo tried to lead the Bucks to a second consecutive improbable comeback, but Tatum said he was thinking about that Game 5 collapse as the Bucks started to rally. He wanted to make sure the Bucks didn’t win the 50-50 balls and dominate the glass.
“They were tougher than us in that fourth quarter of Game 5,” Tatum said. “That was in the back of my mind. That was in the back of everybody’s mind, that we couldn’t get beat on those kind of plays. Our season was on the line.”
Elsewhere, Kiwi centre Steven Adams’ season is over, with his Memphis Grizzlies side defeated by the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference semifinals.
Adams scored four points and grabbed 10 rebounds in 28 minutes in a 110-96 defeat in Game 6, having limped off before halftime with a right ankle injury before returning to little success as the Warriors wrapped up a 4-2 series win.
It was a disappointing playoffs for Adams, who was benched against the Minnesota Timberwolves before catching Covid. He returned and earned more minutes against Golden State, playing better but unable to make a substantial difference.
Klay Thompson knocked down eight three-pointers on the way to 30 points, Stephen Curry scored 29 with six threes, and Golden State withstood a testy series to advance to the conference finals for the first time since 2019, when the franchise reached their fifth straight NBA finals before losing to Toronto.
Draymond Green contributed 14 points, 16 rebounds and eight assists, Kevon Looney outshone Adams with 22 rebounds, including 11 offensive, and Andrew Wiggins scored 10 of his 18 points in the fourth.
The third-seeded Warriors will face the Phoenix-Dallas winner in the conference finals. Game 7 of that series is tomorrow in Phoenix.