Bucks Searching For Answers Before Pivotal Game 3 in Milwaukee

After taking control of Game 2, the Celtics looked like a completely different team Friday night against the Bucks. The Bucks were in desperate need of a win as they lost both games in Boston. Four Celtics players had 20 points or more including Al Horford’s double-double of 24 points and 12 boards to lead the way.

Before diving into those wildcard elements of Milwaukee’s win, we talked about how Khris Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo continued to lead their team from the front. Meanwhile, the Bucks are 4-12 ATS in their last 16 home games, 1-5 ATS in their last six Conference Quarterfinals games and 1-4 ATS in their last five games against a team with a winning record. “We made a couple of mistakes and they made shots”. Bledsoe finished with 17 points, four rebounds, and four assists, on 8-13 shooting with only one turnover.

The Celtics must do a much better job running shooters off the 3-point line and contesting these attempts or the series likely will return to Boston even at two games apiece. They were aggressive and set the tone with the way they wanted to play. With the possibility of John Henson missing tonight’s game, Thon Maker will also need to be ready to step up if his number is called. Seems a little high when the Celtics have done well at home and seem to frustrate the Bucks’ offense.

The Bucks’ problem in the first two games wasn’t that they shot poorly from beyond the arc. Rozier ended up with just nine points, two rebounds, nine assists, and two steals on 2-7 shooting with five turnovers.

After a nail biting overtime win in Game 1, and a blowout win in Game 2, the Celtics came into the Bradley Center with a ton of momentum and a 2-0 series lead in the NBA Playoffs. Taking a lesson from the Celtics, the Bucks should put everything aside, come together as a team, and simply go compete as a unit.

“We realized how important this game was”. We did some good things there, but at that point, they had it going.

Despite a huge offensive outburst, their best work came on the defensive end as they stifled Boston.

The Bucks played with a desperate mentality and were not prepared to go down 3-0 in this first round encounter. We’ll learn from that and we’ll be better.

“Playoffs just really get me hyped”, Maker said after his dynamic, rim-denying, plus-23 effort. Brogdon, who missed two months late in the season with a quad injury, scored five points but helped limit the Celtics’ backcourt of Rozier and Jaylen Brown (11 points).