Bucks

2022 - 12 - 25

Post cover — Image courtesy of "AS English"

Milwaukee Bucks @ Boston Celtics, summary, score, highlights ... (AS English)

A blistering performance from Jayson Tatum (41 pts) and Jaylen Brown (29 points) proved to be too much for the Bucks who fell to their third successive ...

The pick of today's action, is undoubtedly the clash at the TD Garden in Boston which sees the second placed team in the East, Milwaukee Bucks travel to Massachusetts in a repeat of the Eastern Conference semifinals last season, where the Celtics prevailed. The Bucks bring it back to just a 2 point lead for Boston. Later tonight we'll have the Grizzlies at Golden State and Suns at Nuggets rounds off a marathon NBA session. Middleton is missing his 26th game of the season. ... You've got to go out there and play good basketball, build good habits, defend and compete." to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals where they faced the Miami Heat. Bucks 62-64 Celtics Bucks 76-85 Celtics Bucks 86-100 Celtics Bucks 103-120 Celtics Bucks 108-124 Celtics Bucks 118-139 Celtics

Celtics Wrap: Jayson Tatum Gifts Bucks Loss On Christmas (NESN.com)

BOSTON — The Boston Celtics defeated the Milwaukee Bucks, 139-118, on Christmas Day at TD Garden. The Celtics improved to 24-10 while the Bucks fell to ...

The Celtics will be back at TD Garden on Tuesday, welcoming the Houston Rockets to town for the first time in 2022. He also added six points and three rebounds on the afternoon. He also filled up the box score with seven rebounds, five assists and three steals. The Bucks, however, struggled mightily, with Antetokounmpo settling for shots outside of the paint early and often. Antetokounmpo hit a few shots, but an offensive explosion from Jaylen Brown was enough to essentially seal the game for Boston. The Celtics came out hot, connecting on four of their first five shots from range.

Celtics vs. Bucks takeaways: Jayson Tatum, C's rise to challenge in ... (NBC Sports Boston)

How's that for a Christmas Day statement? Jayson Tatum dropped 41 points (and a poster slam) on Giannis and the Bucks to power the Celtics to a 139-118 win.

Giannis didn't have his sidekick in Khris Middleton, who missed the game due to injury. [Jayson Tatum](https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/jayson-tatum?b) seized the spotlight, pouring in a game-high 41 points on 14 of 22 shooting while adding seven rebounds and five assists. The frontcourt combination of The C's haven't been lacking for open looks, so their shooting slump was bound to end at some point. [Al Horford](https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/al-horford?b), [Robert Williams](https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/robert-williams-iii?b) and Grant Williams succeeded in keeping Antetokounmpo out of the paint as much as possible and forcing him to settle for outside shots. [Jaylen Brown](https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/jaylen-brown?b) added 29 points, while [Marcus Smart](https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/marcus-smart?b) handed out a team-high eight assists as the Celtics set a franchise record for most points in a Christmas Day game.

Jayson Tatum powers Celtics past Giannis, Bucks (Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel)

Star scored 20 of his 41 points in the third quarter to help Boston take matchup of the top two teams in the NBA.

… Connaughton, a native of nearby Arlington, Massachusetts, made his first start of the season and scored 15. The teams met in the second round of last year’s Eastern Conference playoffs, and the Celtics won in seven games en route to the NBA Finals. … Derrick White hit a 3-pointer in the third quarter. He also missed the first 20 games of the season. … The Celtics made five of their first six 3-point attempts. The NBA season is a long season, and we will be a much better basketball team by the end of this year than we are right now,” he said. Their lead was down to one point, 62-61, before Bobby Portis fouled Brown on a desperation 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer. Tatum scored 20 in the third quarter, when the Celtics turned a one-point lead into a 100-86 edge. After some jawing back and forth, Antetokounmpo was given a technical foul and went to the bench. Last Christmas in Milwaukee, the Bucks beat Boston 117-113. The Celtics have also struggled lately, losing five of six before winning back-to-back games. Asked about his team’s ability to limit the damage done by Antetokounmpo, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said, “Limiting’s crazy.

The Bucks suffer their third straight loss as Jayson Tatum scores 41 ... (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

BOSTON – The Milwaukee Bucks continued to struggle on their longest road trip of the season, losing 139-118 to the Boston Celtics on Sunday at TD Garden.

After former Bucks point guard Malcolm Brogdon drew an offensive foul on Antetokounmpo with 1.7 seconds left in the first quarter, the Celtics got the ball up to Sam Hauser for a final attempt. It allowed the Bucks to outscore them 33-26 and get back into the game at the half. But more than the big finish, the play represented how the Celtics had continued to stave off Bucks runs with key baskets of their own. Brown added 29 points on 11 of 19 shooting, and he did a lot of his damage in the fourth quarter to keep the Bucks at arm’s length. While the Celtics went about making threes differently from the way they did in the playoffs, they still made more of them. It was a plan that worked in the second half, too, as Antetokounmpo didn’t find as many angles to the to burst through and Lopez just never found himself in positions to get threes up. There are some nights where look, they’re going to make a higher percentage than other nights but overall I think how can we be better at defending the three-point line and how we can we better at making it easier on ourselves offensively and get some easy ones and get some easy threes, easy twos, whatever the case might be to open up the court for our guys like Jrue and Giannis.” Tatum and Brown took 21 of the Celtics’ 44 first-half shots and combined for 34 points while the other eight Celtics were just 10-for-23 in the first half. Boston got back to putting up threes after the break, and the Celtics made just enough to gain some separation from the Bucks. The Bucks (22-11) lost their third straight while the Celtics (24-10) won for just the third time since Dec. [Joe Ingles brings a big heart (and a lot of trash talk) to the Bucks. BOSTON – The Milwaukee Bucks continued to struggle on their longest road trip of the season, losing 139-118 to the Boston Celtics on Sunday at TD Garden.

Jayson Tatum, Celtics light up Bucks in Christmas Day win (The Athletic)

Tatum's 41 points were the second most on Christmas in Celtics history, trailing Tommy Heinsohn.

Eat, be with family, watch all the games and try to envision myself playing there one day,” Tatum said. The irony was before the game, there was an arena staffer in the dining room opining on the artificiality of Christmas Day records. That awareness trope was something that started with the coach but is beginning to pop up in the words of his players. This is the kind of fun that made them so good for so long. “I think just the competitive nature, it’s fun,” Tatum said. “A lot of the time, it’s me versus me out there, and the opponent doesn’t really matter,” Brown said. “That’s why every time we play them, I’m actually pretty happy about the matchup and excited to go out there no matter how physically tolling it is,” Williams said. He’s lamented the good ol’ days of November 2022, when [Celtics](https://theathletic.com/nba/team/celtics/) basketball was exciting and enjoyable. The Bucks knock you down 10 times, but can you keep getting up and bring it again? [NBA](https://theathletic.com/nba/) standings. It’s the second time in Tatum’s career that he has dropped 40 in back-to-back games. [Jayson Tatum](https://theathletic.com/nba/player/jayson-tatum-3O7MInr4zV5KKhZ5/) does.