Bucks (1-2) at Celtics (3-0) Game #4 10/28/24

[FLCeltsFan]

at
Milwaukee Bucks (1-1) at Boston Celtics (3-0)
Monday, October 28, 2024
7:30 PM ET
TV: NBA-TV, NBCSB, SCSNW
Radio: 98.5 Sports Hub, WTMJ-AM/FM, Sirius XM
Regular Season Game [HASH]4, Home Game [HASH]2
TD Garden


Probable Starting Matchups
Point Guard
vs
Jrue Holiday vs Damian Lillard

Shooting Guard
vs
Derrick White vs Gary Trent, Jr

Small Forward
vs
Jaylen Brown vs Giannis Antetokounmpo

Power Forward
vs
Jayson Tatum vs Taurean Prince

Center
vs
Al Horford vs Brook Lopez


Celtics Reserves
Luke Kornet
Payton Pritchard
Neemias Queta
Baylor Scheierman
Jaden Springer
Xavier Tillman, Sr
Jordan Walsh

2 Way Players
JD Davison
Drew Peterson
Anton Watson

Injuries/Out
Kristaps Porzingis (ankle) out
Sam Hauser (back) questionable

Head Coach
Joe Mazzulla




Bucks Reserves
MarJon Beauchamp
Pat Connaughton
Andre Jackson, Jr
AJ Johnson
Chris Livingston
Bobby Portis, Jr
Tyler Smith
Delon Wright

Two Way Players
Liam Robbins
Ryan Rollins
Stanley Umude

Injuries/Out
AJ Green (toe) probable
Khris Middleton (ankle) out
Giannis Antetokounmpo (knee) probable

Head Coach
Doc Rivers

Game Notes
The Celtics return home from a 2-0 road trip where they easily beat Washington and won a close one against Detroit. The Celtics easily beat the Knicks on opening night at home. The Bucks beat Philadelphia 124-109 and lost to the Bulls 133-122 so far. The Bucks are playing on the second night of back to back games after playing in Brooklyn on Sunday.

This is the first of 3 games between these 2 teams this season. They will play again on November 10 in Milwaukee and finally on December 6 in Boston. The series was tied 2-2 last season with each team winning 2 games at home. The Celtics are 118-114 overall all time against the Bucks, and they are 75-40 in games played in Boston.

The Celtics stood pat for the most part in the off season, bringing back their entire core of players and losing just Svi Mykhailiuk and Oshae Brissett. They added Baylor Scheierman, who was the 30th pick in the draft and signed 2nd round pick, Anton Watson to a 2 way contract. They have one open roster spot. They have also added a couple of chips on their shoulder after Olympic snubs and other drama over the summer.

The Bucks made several changes after a disappointing 49-33 finish in the 2023-24 season. They parted ways with Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Jae Crowder, Danilo Gallinari and Thanasis Antetokounmpo. They added veterans Taurean Prince, Gary Trent, Jr, and Delon Wright. They also added rookies AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith.

The Celtics will be without Kristaps Porzingis, who is still rehabbing from off season ankle surgery. He isn't expected to return until sometime in December. Sam Hauser missed the last 2 games with soreness in his lower back and is questionable for this game. Giannis Antetokounmpo (knee) and AJ Green (toe) are probable for this game while Khris Middleton is expected to miss his 4th straight game to start the season as he rehabs from off season ankle surgery.

Key Matchups
vs
Jaylen Brown vs Giannis Antetokounmpo
Last season, Antetokounmpo averaged 30.4 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 6.5 assists. He shot 61.1% from the field and 27.4% from beyond the arc. In his first 2 games this season, he averaged 31.5 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 6.0 assists while shooting 67.8% from the field. He did not hit a 3 in either game. We will likely see others, especially Jayson Tatum matched up with him at times.

vs
Jrue Holiday vs Damian Lillard
Last season, Lillard averaged 24.3 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 7.0 assists. He shot 42.4% from the field and 35.4% from beyond the arc. Over the first 2 games this season, Lillard averaged 29 points, 6.5 rebounds, 7.0 assists and 1.0 steal while shooting 50% from the field and 37.5% from beyond the arc. This should be a good matchup between one of the better shooters in the league and one of the best perimeter defenders.

Honorable Mention
Payton Pritchard vs Bobby Portis
This is a matchup between key subs off the bench for each team. Pritchard comes off the bench for the Celtics and brings energy and timely shots. Portis does much of the same for the Bucks. Last season Portis averaged 13.8 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.3 assists while shooting 50.8% from the field and 40.7% from beyond the arc. In two games this season, he is averaging 13.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2 assists and 1.5 steals per game. He is shooting 57.9% from the field and 50% from beyond the arc.

Keys to the Game
Defense - Defense is always the biggest key to winning. Defense really does win championships. The Celtics are 13th with a defensive rating of 113.1. The Bucks are 20th with a defensive rating of 115.8. Against the Pistons, the Celtics allowed them to shoot 48.9% from the field and 35.9% from beyond the arc. They played good defense at the start of the game and clamped down at the end, but in between, they let up on the defensive end and it allowed the Pistons to come back from 23 points down and to almost steal the game. The Celtics must work harder than the Bucks on defense and keep their focus on the defensive end so as not to allow any easy baskets for the Bucks.

Rebound - Next to defense, rebounding is always a big key to winning. The key to rebounding is effort and focus. When the Celtics increase their rebounding effort, it usually improves their play in other areas as well. The Bucks are 11th with 46.5 rebounds per game while the Celtics are 19th with 42.0 rebounds per game. Against the Pistons, the Celtics were out rebounded 44-37. The Celtics have to fight harder in this game to beat the Bucks to rebounds.

Maximum Effort for 48 Minutes - The Celtics are facing one of their closest rival in the Eastern Conference. There is a good possibility that they will them in the playoffs at some point. The Celtics effort in their win over Detroit was good at times and not so good at others. The Celtics have to give max effort on the boards and on defense and they have to give that effort for the entire game and not just 2 quarters.

Move the Ball - For much of Saturday's game, the Celtics kept the ball moving both inside out and around the perimeter. But for some reason, the Celtics went away from that and there was less movement and more iso play. The Celtics have to keep the ball moving to find the best shot on every possession. When the ball stops moving, they aren't nearly as dominant.

Points in the Paint - The Celtics concentrate on shooting from the perimeter and usually that will lead to a dominant win for them since, as Joe Mazzulla says, 3 is more than 2. However, they have been outscored in the paint in all 3 of their games so far by a large margin. The Celtics are last in the league with just 34.7 points in the paint per game. The Bucks are 14th with 47 points in the paint per game. The Celtics need to score inside more, especially when the 3's aren't falling. They also have to defend inside better to prevent opponents from getting easy buckets in the paint.

X-Factors
Home Game and Fatigue - The Celtics are home once again for the second game this season. They have the home crowd behind them to give them extra motivation. The Bucks are on the road playing in the 2nd game in as many days. The Celtics have had one day off while the Bucks are playing on the second night of back to back games. The Celtics need to take advantage of playing at home and play with energy and effort to make the most of the Bucks' fatigue.

Coaching - The Bucks are coached by former Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who quit the Celtics after Pierce and Garnett were traded because he didn't want to coach a rebuild. Since then, the Celtics have done nothing but win while Doc's teams have struggled, in spite of the fact that he was coaching several stars at each stop. I'm sure Doc will be extra motivated to beat his former team while Joe Mazzulla will be motivated because he is Psycho Joe and is just extra motivated to win every single game.

Officiating - The officiating can always be an x-factor. Some referees call the game tight and others let them play. Some favor the home team and others call it evenly. Some refs just seem to have an agenda that doesn't fit the play on the court. And sometimes the refs are simply atrocious. Giannis seems to always get more than his share of calls as he plows through players on his way to the hoop, leaving bodies in his wake. The Celtics have to play through however the refs call the game, whether it is tight or they let them play or they make terrible calls. The Celtics can't allow bad calls or no calls to take away their focus on the game.

[CelticsLoyalist]

Big test as we already see Sixers and Knicks falling apart a bit to begin the season and Bucks seemingly playing fairly well, this will be a test.

[CelticsLoyalist]

See how flat Walsh's shot was? I know he just got called into a really big early season game and it was his first shot, but had he gave that more arch, that would've gone in. Big shot for us right there if he makes it.

[CelticsLoyalist]

The ball movement and hustle with this unit is off the charts. Bucks came out swinging and focused on Tatum. Brown hasn't really been playing all that well, so we need this type of scoring from the second unit guys. No KP, No Hauser, no problem.

[CelticsLoyalist]

Doesn't look as though we are gonna get any calls from these refs at home so we gotta go out there and take it. Get stop. Gotta start putting the ball on the floor and take everything to the hole. Change the momentum and stretch out a lead to take the refs out of it.

[CelticsLoyalist]

THE PRITCHING HOUR!

[CelticsLoyalist]

They are very focused on pressuring the logo screen and rolls we do and what I liked about Brown splitting the D drawing help and then finding our 3 threats and hot hands like Pritchard is absolutely the thing to do here. They are running top of the key traps waiting for us to do the Tatum/Brown handoff so we need to go to the drive draw and dish! KICK IT!

[CelticsLoyalist]

None, I repeat none, of those Lillard fouls are fouls.

[CelticsLoyalist]

These refs are really really bad. Really bad.

[CelticsLoyalist]

Great job beating the Refs tonight. I wont say they didn't call some horrible fouls and violations on the Bucks, but they were for sure lopsidedly biased against us.

Nice win!

[jmost]

I'm so glad we kept Pritchard. He's such a sparkplug, and in a long season, there are games when his energy is exactly what we need.

Some very nice minutes from Jordan Walsh! He doesn't stuff the stat sheet, but he impacts the game positively.

Jaylen is playing BIG on the boards this year.

[CelticsLoyalist]

Walsh is big and I don't mean that his size is big. Even though he is pretty big. But I mean he is big to have coming off the bench for us. He is an extra luxury big. Plus he has really legit size to match up with multiple positions.

He plays big defense and his motor is all over the place, but in a good way. His energy just to glue to his man and get rebounds, put backs, and using his length really changes things for us.

He is an extra big long stretch D guy. Once he really finds his outside shot, I expect his offensive game to open up more and we will see a lot of put backs and big slams and alley oops.