5 best moments from the Milwaukee Bucks 2021-22 regular season

Wesley Matthews cements his return to the Milwaukee Bucks with a clutch 3 against the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day

This is an underrated moment that I didn’t think about right away, but Dalton Sell mentioned it to me when I was asking for suggestions for some of the best moments of the season.

Wesley Matthews returned to the Bucks at the beginning of December in kind of a surprise move and had played four games before hitting health and safety protocols himself. While quarantining, he learned that his grandmother had passed away.

In his first game back from protocols, he hit four 3s and spoke about playing to honor his grandmother post-game.

Christmas Day games are special for any NBA team, but this was a particularly fun one for the Milwaukee Bucks. Their roster had been ravaged by health and safety protocols but was starting to get healthier and that included getting Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis back for this game against the Boston Celtics.

It was the first time in a while that they had their three best players all playing together and some semblance of a healthy roster.

However, Boston came to play and led by as many as 19 in the first half. Milwaukee, though, flipped the switch and turned it up in the second half. In the fourth quarter, they put Matthews in alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday, and Khris Middleton to go switch-heavy on defense to close and it forced the Celtics into a bunch of tough shots.

Then, down two with just over 40 seconds to go, the Bucks came up with some magic, headlined by Matthews.

The emphatic arrow celebration into the sky from Matthews is so awesome given the context and he’s so pumped up playing for his hometown team on Christmas Day.

Matthews has been the source of some criticism lately for being inserted into the starting lineup, but this was an undeniably cool moment.