Why the Boston Celtics suffered Christmas collapse in Milwaukee

The Boston Celtics fell victim to Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks on Christmas afternoon, losing by a final score of 117-113. Boston led by 15 at halftime and 13 with under 5:30 remaining but were unable to close out the contest.

The Celtics had to make emergency signings to make sure they had enough players available, as they had a whopping 14 individuals on their Friday injury report. This led to the signings of Al-Farouq Aminu and Norvel Pelle, hoping to provide some sort of frontcourt insurance after both Enes Freedom and Bruno Fernando were placed in health and safety protocols.

Additionally, a few hours before game time guard Dennis Schroder was placed on the Covid-19 list, limiting the Boston Celtics’ rotation even more. Ultimately, they were in a position to garner an impressive win against the defending champs but faltered down the stretch. They were outscored by 19 points in the second half.

The Boston Celtics collapsed once again

The Celtics have been unable to close games all year, falling to 4-11 in games that have been within three points in the final two minutes. On the offensive end, Boston got some makeable looks, but most, if not all of them were jump shots. It’s understandable to not want to attack the interior defense of Milwaukee, as Giannis showed Boston what he can defend around the rim late in the game.

However, the Celtics settled far too often, especially considering they were in the bonus.

Jayson Tatum made some extraordinary passes this game, despite only having four assists, and often made the right play with the ball in his hands. He finished with 25 points on 7-of-20 shooting and nine rebounds in 40 minutes of play.

The stat line looks like a good performance from the emerging superstar, but he was anything but down the stretch. The late-game offense revolved around him getting good matchups in isolation possessions against the likes of George Hill or even the smaller Jrue Holiday, but he ended up settling for jumpers instead of attacking them off the dribble. In those situations, Tatum can easily drive past the smaller defender, either finishing around the rim or kicking to the perimeter after drawing help.

These late-game woes have become a definite issue for Tatum this year, shooting just 35.3% in the clutch this year on 51 attempts. He’s one of the best tough-shot makers in the league, but that doesn’t mean he has to rely on his isolation game on every possession at the end of games.

Although Jaylen Brown got off to a remarkable start shooting the ball, hitting his first five jump shots, he similarly got too comfortable in his own isolation game. He finished with 25 points on 8-of-18 shooting, four rebounds, and three assists.

He had a wide-open baseline jumper to take the lead with under 25 seconds remaining but came up just short. If a few of those open looks for Boston would have fallen down the stretch, we would be talking about an entirely different game. Unfortunately, everyone fell cold at the same time, leading to another Celtics collapse in a frustrating year.

On the defensive side of the ball, Milwaukee missed lots of open looks on the perimeter and near the rim in the first half, helping the Celtics jump out to a nearly 20 point lead. In the third quarter, however, the Bucks scored 43 points on 70% shooting. Giannis himself had 17 points in the period, both attacking in transition and doing damage from the foul line, as he had ten attempts in the third quarter alone.

The Boston Celtics seemed to grab back the momentum off the backs of Payton Pritchard and Jabari Parker, who had 16 and nine points respectively. They were both forced into extended playing time considering nearly nobody else was available and delivered for coach Ime Udoka.

Parker even played respectable defense on Giannis when should clearly be overmatched, while Pritchard hit four of his eight attempts for long-range. Ever since he broke out in the fourth quarter against the Trail Blazers, Pritchard has gone back to his rookie self, earning the playing time he now deserves. It’s doubtful he’ll ever spend time out of the regular rotation again.

This game was going to be an uphill battle from the start, considering the lack of personnel available for Boston. Either Al Horford or Grant Williams would have been a tremendous help in this one, as they have both shown success, especially Horford, on Giannis. Instead, Boston had to resort to a combination of guys, including the much slower Juancho Hernangomez to attempt to guard him.

In his first game back from the Covid-19 list, Antetokounmpo got anything he wanted, recording 36 points on 10-of-15 from the free-throw line, 12 rebounds, and five assists in only 30 minutes. Boston got doubled up in terms of points in the paint, with Milwaukee scoring 56 compared to the Celtics’ 28.

This makes sense in terms of how both teams like to play, but it speaks volumes to how the Boston Celtics were unable to limit the Bucks interior penetration and second-chance opportunities, with Milwaukee grabbing 15 offensive rebounds.

This game is a difficult one for a fan to wrap their head around. On one hand, they were never expected to win, going into a hostile environment against the defending champs down almost half their roster. On the other, they had an extensive lead and almost every opportunity to close out the victory, which would have finally put them over .500.

Hopefully, their abysmal crunch-time stats will start to even out, leading to more wins in games like these. However, a philosophical change might be needed in their late-game offensive approach, as this method clearly isn’t working.