Milwaukee Bucks Game 6 Preview: April 26 vs Boston Celtics
By Adam McGee
Major key for Boston – Show up on the road
For as much as this narrative applies to both teams in a series that has yet to feature a road win, the Celtics’ struggles have been much more pronounced than Milwaukee’s in their appearances away from home.
The Celtics have a net rating of -17.5 over the two previous games at the Bradley Center, a mark only ahead of the San Antonio Spurs’ playoff worst -17.6 road net rating from their trips to face the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena.
The Boston offense has slowed down in previous trips to Milwaukee and role players haven’t managed to replicate their impact from home games, but it’s actually the defensive side of the ball that has really cost the Celtics on the road.
In three games at TD Garden in the series, Boston boasts a stellar defensive rating of 99.7, which is very much in line with their league-best regular season defense. But in Milwaukee, the Celtics have a defensive rating of 122.8 through two games, the worst of any team on the road in the postseason.
Those numbers come in the smallest of sample sizes and don’t have to be indicative of any larger trends, but they are still evidence of what’s happened so far. If Boston wants to avoid a Game 7, they’ll need to find their defense and a whole lot more on Thursday night.