Bucks (7-0) at Celtics (5-2) Game #8 11/1/18

[jambr380]

Happy to get the win. D was great in the 1st quarter and then totally fell apart, but at least they put on quite the display from downtown. It would also be nice if we could play a little better down the stretch.

Anyway, nice job guys on bringing down the last undefeated team in the league!

[PAOBoston]

24 3s, only won by 4. Not a good statistic. I understand 3s are the chic thing right now but there needs to be a healthy balance. Cs barely get to the FT line. They need to be more aggressive attacking the paint.

One is not related to the other. The defense gave up 113 points.

And like, 50 points in the paint or so

1. You are going to play really good offensive teams which will be very hard to defend. Cs came in ranked with the best defense in the league. Sometimes the other team will be able to hit shots too. Bucks were able to come back from double digit points b/c the Cs decided to shoot themselves into a rut multiple times tonight. They built double digit leads like 3 times and kept settling for 3s instead of forcing the Bucks hand. Bucks started the 4th on a 12-0 run, 7 of those pts FTs while they Cs jacked up 3ptrs on like 4 straight possessions. Things can go really well when they go in but they don't go in at a high rate often for an entire game.

2. Points in the paint always gonna be a problem when playing Giannis. Also, I think the Cs gameplan of pushing them off the 3 pt line played a role in that too. Likewise, Budenholzer's defense with dropping the centers opened the 3 pt barrage by the Cs.

[gouki88]

This is awful basketball by the Celtics win or lose can they do anything accept shoot a 3 or an off balanced  junper? Can they execute anything on offense besides shooting 3’s? I understand it’s a different game now and everyone shoots 3’s but my god 54 attempts??? They had Milwaukee down by 15 and continued to jack up 3’s while Milwaukee starting driving the paint. Just so boring to watch the Celtics jack up 3’ every possession create some [dang] offense.

If they hadn't been wide open and if we weren't winning this argument might hold. Our offence is designed to shoot threes

Which is why I'm starting to back up on my beating GS thinking.

Why? Houston was a healthy Chris Paul away from beating GSW, and that's how they play offensively too.

We're a much better defence than them too

It's not, actually. Shooting a lot of free throws is a key part of their offense (25 per game, 3rd in the league last year). We shot 13 FTs tonight. It really was just us jacking up the first open 3 we got.

Oh yeah, our offence is more 3 or mid-range rather than the key or three that D'Antoni loves. But the heavy reliance on deep shooting is the similarity.

We also don't have a Harden to just get free throws whenever he moves

More drive-and-kick from TR and KI would help. And a few post-ups by Smart and Horford.

In a way we are cursed by our talent. We get good shots really easily, and guys are shooting it. We need to hit that level where we pass up the good shot for the *great* shot. If we can do that, we will start destroying people.

Agree. Kyrie was doing a good job of it, but man, Rozier seems to only shoot when he gets inside the arc

[tenn_smoothie]

Other than Morris , not great performance from our BWA.

Brad needs to sit Rozier down about his apparently selfish, contract-chasing play so far.

Agree with this, Terry is out of control much of the game. He looks for his and his alone.

One of our key players starts playing for himself - it will hurt our title chances bad.

[GreenEnvy]

Happy we escaped with the win but to rely on setting a franchise-record 24 treys means we still haven’t hit our stride. Defense was sloppy at times, offense was equally as inconsistent.

Some guys stepped up, some were meh. We didn’t play a great game from start to finish (strong 1st and 3rd, poor 2nd and 4th), but I felt like we were giving this one away. Luckily we scraped it out.



Crazy the narrative by everyone is that we are off to a slow start when we are 6-2. We still haven’t started firing on all cylinders yet but on a 61+ win pace. Let the rest of the league be warned; you haven’t seen the Celtics.

[BackDoorCut]

This is awful basketball by the Celtics win or lose can they do anything accept shoot a 3 or an off balanced  junper? Can they execute anything on offense besides shooting 3’s? I understand it’s a different game now and everyone shoots 3’s but my god 54 attempts??? They had Milwaukee down by 15 and continued to jack up 3’s while Milwaukee starting driving the paint. Just so boring to watch the Celtics jack up 3’ every possession create some [dang] offense.

If they hadn't been wide open and if we weren't winning this argument might hold. Our offence is designed to shoot threes

Which is why I'm starting to back up on my beating GS thinking.

Why? Houston was a healthy Chris Paul away from beating GSW, and that's how they play offensively too.

We're a much better defence than them too

Houston was a healthy Andre Iguodala from going out in 5.

[SparzWizard]

So remember when the Celtics had their first two losses of the season last year? They went onto win 16 straight games.

They had their first two losses this year and have won four straight so far. Lets keep balling and winning!!!

[RockinRyA]

24 3s, only won by 4. Not a good statistic. I understand 3s are the chic thing right now but there needs to be a healthy balance. Cs barely get to the FT line. They need to be more aggressive attacking the paint.

Exactly - TP for the truth. Everybody gets caught up in a hot shooting night, but when those 3's cool off, we gotta score in the lane and rely on our defense.

so turn away the open threes and force it inside against a packed defense? Okay genius.

[Celtics4ever]

I still think the Bucks are the third best team in the east.    After us and Toronto, Philly is on the outside looking in.

[hodgy03038]

The Bucks are a dangerous team. If they are hitting outside shots they are tough. Greek Freak gets every call and you can't play defense on him because if you look at him it's a foul. I agree that the top 3 in the East are BOS, TOR & MILW. It's too early to say if BOS or TOR will be the team to beat in the East but if we are healthy I think we are deeper.

[Green-18]

24 3s, only won by 4. Not a good statistic. I understand 3s are the chic thing right now but there needs to be a healthy balance. Cs barely get to the FT line. They need to be more aggressive attacking the paint.

Exactly - TP for the truth. Everybody gets caught up in a hot shooting night, but when those 3's cool off, we gotta score in the lane and rely on our defense.

so turn away the open threes and force it inside against a packed defense? Okay genius.

I'm with you Rockin.  The Bucks defense was defending the paint at the expense of WIDE open threes.  Marcus Morris basically called them warm up shots.  The reality is that Giannis, Middleton, Snell, Henson, Illyasova, and Lopez have the collective size, length, and athleticism to give the Celtics major issues with help defense.  The flip side is that their approach will get them destroyed from the three point line against elite shooting teams.   

This doesn't mean that I wouldn't prefer a bit more balance.  There are ways to get high percentage shots within 10 feet regardless of of whether or not the Bucks are packing the paint.  A 100% healthy Hayward will go a long way towards helping the offense in this type of match up. 

On a different note, I wouldn't be against Semi starting against Milwaukee even with a healthy roster.  He is truly the only wing with the combination of strength and lateral quickness to make Giannis work for every bucket.  Horford can handle Giannis in the closing minutes but I think it's too demanding for him to defend the freak for 25+ minutes per night.

[cman88]

All those complaining realize we just beat an undefeated team right?

Also, bucks were purposely packing the paint. Brad Steven's said as much in the halftime interview. If you are getting wide open 3s you have to take them.

Good thing is, Kyrie looks back and Hayward looks better every game. Last night he looked like allstar hayward.

Once we have our chemistry down and both those guys are 100% watch out

[angryguy77]

All those complaining realize we just beat an undefeated team right?

Also, bucks were purposely packing the paint. Brad Steven's said as much in the halftime interview. If you are getting wide open 3s you have to take them.

Good thing is, Kyrie looks back and Hayward looks better every game. Last night he looked like allstar hayward.

Once we have our chemistry down and both those guys are 100% watch out

They had numerous opportunities to take better high % shots and settled for 3's instead. If all it takes is packing the paint to force Boston into shooting a crazy number of 3's, then the Bucks just found the blueprint on how best to play against this team.

I don't get to see every game because I'm not on the Boston market, but over the last few years most games I've seen have been nothing but street ball and 3 pt competitions. I realize the league is changing (for the worse imo), but Brad has to start keeping these guys in check when they start chucking 3 after 3. You saw what happened last night when those shots stopped falling, a blowout turned into a nail-biter.

[trickybilly]

All those complaining realize we just beat an undefeated team right?

Also, bucks were purposely packing the paint. Brad Steven's said as much in the halftime interview. If you are getting wide open 3s you have to take them.

Good thing is, Kyrie looks back and Hayward looks better every game. Last night he looked like allstar hayward.

Once we have our chemistry down and both those guys are 100% watch out

They had numerous opportunities to take better high % shots and settled for 3's instead. If all it takes is packing the paint to force Boston into shooting a crazy number of 3's, then the Bucks just found the blueprint on how best to play against this team.

I don't get to see every game because I'm not on the Boston market, but over the last few years most games I've seen have been nothing but street ball and 3 pt competitions. I realize the league is changing (for the worse imo), but Brad has to start keeping these guys in check when they start chucking 3 after 3. You saw what happened last night when those shots stopped falling, a blowout turned into a nail-biter.

43% from 3 is pretty good. Could have hit a couple more to be honest. Lucky we have some very high 3% shooting guys (maybe, combined, better than GSW). Certainly our defense is better than theirs, not today though...

[hodgy03038]

All those complaining realize we just beat an undefeated team right?

Also, bucks were purposely packing the paint. Brad Steven's said as much in the halftime interview. If you are getting wide open 3s you have to take them.

Good thing is, Kyrie looks back and Hayward looks better every game. Last night he looked like allstar hayward.

Once we have our chemistry down and both those guys are 100% watch out

They had numerous opportunities to take better high % shots and settled for 3's instead. If all it takes is packing the paint to force Boston into shooting a crazy number of 3's, then the Bucks just found the blueprint on how best to play against this team.

I don't get to see every game because I'm not on the Boston market, but over the last few years most games I've seen have been nothing but street ball and 3 pt competitions. I realize the league is changing (for the worse imo), but Brad has to start keeping these guys in check when they start chucking 3 after 3. You saw what happened last night when those shots stopped falling, a blowout turned into a nail-biter.

43% from 3 is pretty good. Could have hit a couple more to be honest. Lucky we have some very high 3% shooting guys (maybe, combined, better than GSW). Certainly our defense is better than theirs, not today though...

I think it's a little bit of a stretch to say better than GSW. I certainly think we are deeper but it would be hard to match the 3 pt efficiency of Curry, Klay & Durant.