The Milwaukee Bucks were able to narrowly edge out the Boston Celtics Wednesday night, but they did not have that some luck in the rematch Friday night.
Boston looked firmly in control of this one from the start as they let Milwaukee’s biggest lead of the night reach just one point late in the first quarter. Meanwhile, the Celtics cruised to victory as they eventually built up a 21-point lead midway through the fourth quarter.
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The Bucks were able to chip away at that sizeable lead in the final minutes, but it was to no avail as they suffered the 122-114 defeat. This ugly loss snaps their previous eight-game winning streak along with any momentum they had seemingly built up in that brief stretch.
Nevertheless, this roster will have little time to reflect on the loss as they are set to take on the New York Knicks tonight in a back-to-back.
Now sliding back into the third seed in the Eastern Conference, the Bucks have some ground to make up, and a win against the Knicks would be a great start. Before that game tips off tonight, here are three takeaways from Milwaukee’s 15th defeat of the season last night.
Milwaukee Bucks lose the battle from behind the arc in loss to Celtics
With a combined 94 3-point attempts from these two teams Friday night, neither group was shy about letting it fly from deep.
All things considered, the Bucks shot the ball relatively well from long range by shooting 19-of-47 (40.4 percent) on the night. Khris Middleton was particularly in a nice groove as he shot 4-of-5 from behind the arc en route to a team-high 19-point performance. While Milwaukee knocked down their triples efficiently, they could not stop the Celtics from doing the same.
Boston shot 22-of-47 (46.8 percent) from deep on a night where everyone was getting in on the action. It was disheartening to watch as whenever Milwaukee looked like they were gearing up to piece together a run, a Celtics player would knock down another 3-pointer and balloon the lead further out of reach. Boston’s Marcus Smart was particularly the main culprit of this predicament, as he shot an impressive 7-of-10 from long range on the night.
Perimeter defense has been a sizeable issue for the Bucks in the Mike Budenholzer era, and last night’s defensive effort was a display of how ugly it can get. This team has been experimenting with their defensive schemes to try and fix this issue, but as evidenced by last night’s outing, it remains far from a finished product.