Bucks (44-24) at Celtics (54-14) Game #69 3/20/24

[celticinorlando]

I do like the fact the Cs can throw three different types of defenders on Dame in JB, White and Jrue.

JB played Dame great last night.

[jpotter33]

https://x.com/chrisforsberg_/status/1770780652088053773?s=46&t=lGU0TGXtwjkuVuoin6WTNw

Jaylen Brown defended Damian Lillard for nearly half of his offensive floor time on Wednesday. Per NBA tracking:

34 possessions
7 PTS
2-4 FG
1 TO
0 shooting fouls

All other defenders:

41.6 possessions
30 PTS
11-20 FG
4 TO

Derrick White spent 12.7 possessions. 0 PTS, 2 TO.   

[Celtics2021]

https://x.com/chrisforsberg_/status/1770780652088053773?s=46&t=lGU0TGXtwjkuVuoin6WTNw

Jaylen Brown defended Damian Lillard for nearly half of his offensive floor time on Wednesday. Per NBA tracking:

34 possessions
7 PTS
2-4 FG
1 TO
0 shooting fouls

All other defenders:

41.6 possessions
30 PTS
11-20 FG
4 TO

Derrick White spent 12.7 possessions. 0 PTS, 2 TO.   

Something doesn’t quite add up, because Lillard only scored 32 points on 21 FGA.  Those numbers add up to 37 points and 24 FGA.

[celticinorlando]

Fix the offense vs the zone defense. We are going to see desperate teams throw this at the Cs a lot. Saw it last night.

And again...the Bucks had another 2 days off before they played the Celtics and had two practices to prep for the Cs. Same the last time these 2 teams played.

[Phantom255x]

I know it's been cliche to say, but while the C's have let MIL comeback late in 2 of the 3 games this season, I still think they've done a good job to come away with the win. Meaning, a game like yesterday or even the other one earlier in the season might have been losses last year. MIL was just hitting a ton of shots in the 4th and making great plays and good runs. Credit to them. The C's still did just enough to hold them off and made some nice plays late to seal it (JB's free throws, KP's putback dunk, etc.). Not pretty but not every win is pretty.

These are the kind of games we would have definitely blown last year particularly in the 2nd half of the season (after January) and then spending the next 1-2 days sulking. So far this year there's only been maybe 3-4 games like that total. And it's almost April already.

[Kuberski33]

You can't get too upset when good teams make runs late in games. That's the way of the NBA. Last night Portis got hot and Dame came to life, the C's started missing shots and Milwaukee nearly came all the way back. It happens.  And Milwaukee is a good team.

What stood out to me was Tatum getting to the basket when it was absolutely needed. That drive where he finished with his left was tremendous - and that's something he wouldn't have been able to do consistently prior to this season.  That's the difference with him.

Also Porzingis showing up (after missing lots of shots) with that huge rebound and putback.

I think Milwaukee will be the Celtics competition for winning the east. They've got a good combo of talent, support guys and a coach who'll get the most out of them (I know that one's debatable but I think hiring Doc was a good move for them).

I still like our chances.

[RMO]

Did they ever try to hunt out Lillard (who has a reputation as a poor defender) to get a favorable match up?  I don't really recall that happening much.  At least not enough where it seemed to be something they game planned to do.

[Vermont Green]

Fix the offense vs the zone defense. We are going to see desperate teams throw this at the Cs a lot. Saw it last night.

And again...the Bucks had another 2 days off before they played the Celtics and had two practices to prep for the Cs. Same the last time these 2 teams played.

Yes, the execution against the zone was not great, we seemed like we were caught off guard, as is often the case.  But it also really slowed us down.  We started to walk up the court.  We let them change the tempo of the game.

You can beat the zone by posting someone in the middle.  That someone needs to have the skills to pass or shoot.  We seemed to be putting Porzingis in the middle, but in the past, Tatum has worked will in that position.  Put Porzingis in the corner, where he can cut to the hoop (back door) or hang and shoot a 3.

We need to recognize the zone more quickly and get into the right scheme more quickly.

[Vermont Green]

Did they ever try to hunt out Lillard (who has a reputation as a poor defender) to get a favorable match up?  I don't really recall that happening much.  At least not enough where it seemed to be something they game planned to do.

I think the "hunting" was more to get a small defender on Porzingis and then let him attack.  Sometimes that small defender was Lillard, but not exclusively.  There were also possessions where Brown would try to back down Lillard, but MIL was doing a good job with help defense and Brown did not have his best scoring touch (6-15) so that was not all that productive.

[johnnygreen]

Fix the offense vs the zone defense. We are going to see desperate teams throw this at the Cs a lot. Saw it last night.

And again...the Bucks had another 2 days off before they played the Celtics and had two practices to prep for the Cs. Same the last time these 2 teams played.

This has to be a joke, right? Did those practices include Giannis? And if they did, then those practices were useless, since Giannis didn't play in the actual game. I'm not sure if you are aware (I'm obviously joking), but Giannis is literally a game changer.

That game was as meaningless as the previous two games against the worst teams in the league. I laughed when I heard the spread in the game, as I immediately thought I would take the Bucks with 10 points, since I knew the Celtics wouldn't be up for the game with Giannis out.

[celticinorlando]

Fix the offense vs the zone defense. We are going to see desperate teams throw this at the Cs a lot. Saw it last night.

And again...the Bucks had another 2 days off before they played the Celtics and had two practices to prep for the Cs. Same the last time these 2 teams played.

This has to be a joke, right? Did those practices include Giannis? And if they did, then those practices were useless, since Giannis didn't play in the actual game. I'm not sure if you are aware (I'm obviously joking), but Giannis is literally a game changer.

That game was as meaningless as the previous two games against the worst teams in the league. I laughed when I heard the spread in the game, as I immediately thought I would take the Bucks with 10 points, since I knew the Celtics wouldn't be up for the game with Giannis out.

Well Doc himself said they worked on things for 2 straight days for this game. He also went onto say how lucky they were to have these 2 day gaps in the schedule to practice.

[Neurotic Guy]

The concerns I have coming out of this game is that after their top 2, the Bucks have a very good group of players.  I don't see their roster as better than the C's, but they're good enough to win a series v. the Celtics.  Middleton, who everyone's been saying has lost his all-star abilities, looked pretty good to me yesterday.

[ozgod]

You can't get too upset when good teams make runs late in games. That's the way of the NBA. Last night Portis got hot and Dame came to life, the C's started missing shots and Milwaukee nearly came all the way back. It happens.  And Milwaukee is a good team.

What stood out to me was Tatum getting to the basket when it was absolutely needed. That drive where he finished with his left was tremendous - and that's something he wouldn't have been able to do consistently prior to this season.  That's the difference with him.

Also Porzingis showing up (after missing lots of shots) with that huge rebound and putback.

I think Milwaukee will be the Celtics competition for winning the east. They've got a good combo of talent, support guys and a coach who'll get the most out of them (I know that one's debatable but I think hiring Doc was a good move for them).

I still like our chances.

Yes. It’s unrealistic to expect us, or any team, to steamroll everyone, even if it would make our viewing experience easier…this is the best league in the world, and Milwaukee are one of the best teams in the league. They will make runs like any other team. And it’s a good experience for the Cs to be pushed and put under pressure rather than it being a procession of 20 point wins. What matters is how they respond and that they make the last run of the game.

Against Cleveland they didn’t respond well to thst run that was sparked by an unlikely player catching fire…but against the Bucks they did. So it’s improvement 

The thing they really need to work on is how to respond against a zone, because we don’t do well against one, and as a result I’m sure we will see plenty of them. Having KP shoot poorly against it from 3 obviously didn’t help but that’s one of the thing they need to figure out.

[Silas]

You can't get too upset when good teams make runs late in games. That's the way of the NBA. Last night Portis got hot and Dame came to life, the C's started missing shots and Milwaukee nearly came all the way back. It happens.  And Milwaukee is a good team.

What stood out to me was Tatum getting to the basket when it was absolutely needed. That drive where he finished with his left was tremendous - and that's something he wouldn't have been able to do consistently prior to this season.  That's the difference with him.

Also Porzingis showing up (after missing lots of shots) with that huge rebound and putback.

I think Milwaukee will be the Celtics competition for winning the east. They've got a good combo of talent, support guys and a coach who'll get the most out of them (I know that one's debatable but I think hiring Doc was a good move for them).

I still like our chances.

Yes. It’s unrealistic to expect us, or any team, to steamroll everyone, even if it would make our viewing experience easier…this is the best league in the world, and Milwaukee are one of the best teams in the league. They will make runs like any other team. And it’s a good experience for the Cs to be pushed and put under pressure rather than it being a procession of 20 point wins. What matters is how they respond and that they make the last run of the game.

Against Cleveland they didn’t respond well to thst run that was sparked by an unlikely player catching fire…but against the Bucks they did. So it’s improvement 

The thing they really need to work on is how to respond against a zone, because we don’t do well against one, and as a result I’m sure we will see plenty of them. Having KP shoot poorly against it from 3 obviously didn’t help but that’s one of the thing they need to figure out.

When fully healthy the Cs should have no problem with a  zone defense.  Keep in mind that our two best perimeter 3-pt shooters did not play.  With Sam (43.2%) and Jrue (44.5%) knocking down 3s the Cs are significantly better than having Tillman (23.1%) taking those 3s.

[SparzWizard]

You can't get too upset when good teams make runs late in games. That's the way of the NBA. Last night Portis got hot and Dame came to life, the C's started missing shots and Milwaukee nearly came all the way back. It happens.  And Milwaukee is a good team.

What stood out to me was Tatum getting to the basket when it was absolutely needed. That drive where he finished with his left was tremendous - and that's something he wouldn't have been able to do consistently prior to this season.  That's the difference with him.

Also Porzingis showing up (after missing lots of shots) with that huge rebound and putback.

I think Milwaukee will be the Celtics competition for winning the east. They've got a good combo of talent, support guys and a coach who'll get the most out of them (I know that one's debatable but I think hiring Doc was a good move for them).

I still like our chances.

Yes. It’s unrealistic to expect us, or any team, to steamroll everyone, even if it would make our viewing experience easier…this is the best league in the world, and Milwaukee are one of the best teams in the league. They will make runs like any other team. And it’s a good experience for the Cs to be pushed and put under pressure rather than it being a procession of 20 point wins. What matters is how they respond and that they make the last run of the game.

Against Cleveland they didn’t respond well to thst run that was sparked by an unlikely player catching fire…but against the Bucks they did. So it’s improvement 

The thing they really need to work on is how to respond against a zone, because we don’t do well against one, and as a result I’m sure we will see plenty of them. Having KP shoot poorly against it from 3 obviously didn’t help but that’s one of the thing they need to figure out.

Just need to keep the ball moving and attack inside and set some screens. Throw off their zone. They expect the C's to shoot 3's and if the shots aren't falling then it's time to switch it up. Hit 'em where they least expect.