After playing 6 games in 9 days and winning 5 games in a row, the Celtics had three days off before their matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday. This game had every making of becoming a trap game for the Celtics to lose and that came to fruition sadly as Boston lost to a Giannis-less Milwaukee team 116-101. It was a frustrating game to watch all around but the Celtics just absolutely lost control of the game in the second half. Between awful shot selection and no ability to get stops, Boston lost to a team led by Kyle Kuzma and Bobby Portis in 2025, which was kind of embarrassing.
2. Awful second half shot selection
At the end of the first half the Celtics finished with a 67-60 lead and as a team shot 22/42 (52%) from the field and 11/23 (48%) from three point range. Then in the third quarter, Boston completely forgot how to play offense as they scored only 13 points on 4-22 FG (18%) and 0-12 from three and the fourth quarter wasn’t much better as they shot 8-24 (33%) FG and 3-14 from three. The Bucks were not playing smothering defense or anything either, the Celtics were just missing wide open shots. Looking at the shot chart, Boston really started to get three point heavy and none of them were falling. This is what really led to their downfall as Milwaukee on the other end was hitting everything they put up.
A lot of the Celtics second half possessions were a lot like this where Payton Pritchard put up a three after one pass normally from Jaylen Brown, then after the miss someone would rebound the ball by Boston as they had 13 offensive rebounds in the game, then the next person like Derrick White would chuck up the first shot they got out of the rebound. As you can see, they are wide open shots, Boston just could not capitalize on any opportunity that Milwaukee was giving them and it led to the loss.
3. No ability to get stops
You would think since the Celtics had an inability to make shots on offense, surely their defense would be able to step up on the other end right? The answer was no. The Milwaukee Bucks shot 58% from the field and 45% from three as a team in this game and shot 63% from the field and 58% from three in the second half alone. Their shot chart looked crazy as everything they put up, went in. The players that were killing them the most was Kyle Kuzma and Bobby Portis who combined for 58 points.
Bobby Portis had a season high 27 points today on ridiculous efficiency, 11-13 FG and 5-6 3PM. Portis was living on the block as he had multiple shots where he backed down the smaller defender and hit a fadeaway jumper. This one was over Jaylen Brown and was an example of the insane shots he was hitting.
Another Portis shot that killed the Celtics were two quarter threes to begin the fourth quarter. These were both over Neemias Queta who had a solid closeout but it wasn’t enough to stop Bobby Portis’ hot shooting.
Kyle Kuzma did a lot of damage to Boston starting in the first half where he had 18 of his 31 points. He did a lot of driving downhill on the Celtics and his momentum was not enough for Boston to stop. This play where he barreled over Brown to get an and-1 layup is an example of his style of play in this game as a whole.
Going into this game the Bucks were statistically the worst rebounding team in the NBA as they average 39.1 rebounds per game as a team and they out-rebounded the Celtics 40-39. Now this isn’t a huge disparity or anything as Boston was actually pretty great on the offensive glass with 13 offensive rebounds (mostly because they kept missing shots), but allowing the worst rebounding team in the NBA beat you on the boards is a tough seen.
5. At least Celtics got free throws?
Coming into this game the Celtics had the lowest free throws attempted per game in the NBA at 18.8 FTA. However, Boston did a pretty good job at getting to the free throw line in this game as they were able to get 25 free throw attempts and made 19 of them. If you look at every teams cumulative FTA differential this season the Celtics rank dead last and are behind almost every team in the NBA, except the Bucks ironically. This is one of the few positives I can take away from this game for Boston as the results of the second half didn’t give me a lot to choose from.
For the 7th time in his last 8 games, Jaylen Brown has scored 30+ points in a game. Although the Celtics lost, Brown played pretty well as he finished with 30 points on 10-17 FG and 2-4 3PM. The Bucks did their best to double Brown as much as they could but when he got a chance one-on-one, he was able to take advantage of it.
Brown had an incredible first quarter as he finished with 13 points on 5-5 shooting and he was getting anywhere he wanted on the court. This shot to end the first quarter was beautiful as he was able to shake off Jericho Sims with a nasty cross over into a midrange jumper at the buzzer.
After a scoreless second quarter, Brown tried his best to end the Celtics slow shooting in the second half with a few baskets. His best attempt came in the 4th quarter when Boston was still technically in striking distance. Brown had Kuzma on an island and hit a nasty step back three to give him his 30th points of the night.
7. Jordan Walsh is still awesome
Although it was a nightmare game for the Celtics as a whole, Jordan Walsh continued to play great basketball. Walsh finished with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 3 steals while shooting 8-10 FG and 3-4 3PM. Walsh had an incredible first half as he was a perfect 7-7 shooting on an insane 121% TS%. This was a great sign to see from Walsh as he was aggressive when it came to taking the wide open shots the defense was giving him.
The best example of this aggressiveness came in the first quarter where Brown drove into the lane and Walsh called for the ball in the corner. Brown made the pass and Walsh splashed his second three of the game to that point.
Another one of my favorite baskets of the night from Walsh came on this play where Derrick White missed a three. Hugo Gonzalez was able to tip the ball back up into the air for Walsh who was able to muscle his way inside and all in one motion was able to finish the layup for an and-1.
Walsh has continued to impress everyone in Celtics nation and he is really shaping into a legitimate all around piece for Boston that they can use for years to come.
8. Sam Hauser Nightmare Game
In what was supposed to be a homecoming game for Sam Hauser, it quickly turned into a nightmare as he had maybe the worst game of his entire career. Hauser finished with 0 points and 7 rebounds on 0-10 FG and 0-9 3PM. I have never seen Hauser play this badly in my life as almost every shot he took was wide open and for some reason wasn’t going in.
There isn’t a better way to represent his game tonight than with this 20 second sequence where he missed a wide open three that was rebounded by Queta at the 9:50 mark of the 4th quarter. Then he got a second chance to redeem himself with another wide open three at the 9:41 mark that was rebounded again by the Celtics. Finally this nightmare possession ended but it was with Hauser cutting from the corner and completely whiffing on a wide open layup at the 9:30 mark.
This was a rough game all around from Hauser who is having his worst three point shooting season of his career right now at 34%. He has never shot below 40% from three in a season since high school so I have faith he is going to bounce back, but it is tough to see him struggle like this.
9. Reminiscing on the old days
Watching this game really made me miss when Boston vs Milwaukee was a real rivalry around 2018-2023. Every game felt like a playoff game and it felt like there were legitimate stakes in the standings in every matchup. Now the Bucks might be trading Giannis Antetokounmpo. Tonight made me miss the peak of the rivalry in the 2022 playoffs. Jayson Tatum dropped 46 points in Game 6 to force a Game 7 back in Boston where Grant Williams had the game of his life hitting 7 threes to advance the to the Eastern Conference Finals. Who knows if the heights of this rivalry will ever be reached again but its fun to reminisce on the good times after an awful performance.
Overall, this is a game that you just have to throw away the film of if you’re the Celtics. A classic trap game that nobody could really take any positives away from. They had three days off in between their last game and they play the Pistons back home in their next game. This is a great matchup against a good team that they beat earilier in the season so it would be a great time to have a bounce back game.
Sadly, it is on another three days rest as the game will be played on Monday December 15th at 7pm. This long break in the schedule is due to the NBA Cup this weekend. Hopefully this time the Celtics can play better coming off of three days rest vs the Pistons but I guess only time will tell.
