Bucks rally to push Celtics to brink, Grizzlies maul Warriors
The Milwaukee Bucks erased a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit to beat Boston 110-107 on Wednesday and push the Celtics to the brink of NBA playoff elimination as the Memphis Grizzlies stayed alive with a 13495 drubbing of Golden State.
The Grizzlies, facing elimination and playing without injured Allstar guard Ja Morant, weren’t about to go out on their home floor.
They raced to a 38-28 firstquarter lead and never trailed as they cut the deficit in their best-of-seven Western Conference series to 3-2, sending it back to San Francisco on Friday.
“We just stuck to the game plan,” said Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr, one of three Memphis players with 21 points.
“We knew what was at stake. We didn’t change anything though, we just calmed down, looked at the film, understood what we had to take away from the last game and just went out there and executed.” Desmond Bane and Tyus Jones also scored 21 for the Grizzlies, who had seven players score in double figures in the wire-to-wire win.
Klay Thompson led the Warriors with 19 points.
Jonathan Kuminga added 17 and superstar Stephen Curry scored 14 on four-of-10 shooting for the Warriors, who coughed up 22 turnovers leading to 29 Grizzlies points.
“It was awful, embarrassing,” Thompson said.“we all had the mindset we were going to close it out tonight, but sometimes basketball is an inexact science and we played like a shell of ourselves.” The Grizzlies outrebounded the Warriors 55-37 and led them 24-5 in secondchance points.
Up by as many as 55 late in the third quarter, the Grizzlies were flirting with NBA history, with the largest margin ever in the playoffs -- 58 points.
It was a massive comedown for the Warriors, who played their second straight game with head coach Steve Kerr sidelined by Covid-19.
The third quarter hadn’t ended when stars Curry, Thompson and Draymond Green were pulled by acting coach Mike Brown.