Boston Celtics: 1 stud and 1 dud from C’s gut punch loss in Game 5

Through three quarters of play Wednesday night, we saw a stellar showing from the Boston Celtics, as they showcased the specific attributes and style of play that made them one of the most lethal teams during the second half of the season and why they finished the year off as the second seed in the Eastern Conference standings.

From their calm and collected demeanor early on that led them back from a 7-2 start to their defensive intensity and crafty offensive execution the C’s seemed to be in the driver’s seat en route to a 3-2 series lead and one win away from clinching their fourth Conference Finals berth in six seasons.

Then the fourth quarter happened.

If the first 36 minutes of action were prime examples of the C’s second-half successes, then the final 12 minutes perfectly mimicked the tumultuous first half of this year’s campaign, for losing fourth-quarter leads, as one may remember, was essentially their M.O. and, Wednesday night, this team let up a big one.

Seeing as high as a 14-point advantage in the final period, it seemed quite apparent that Boston was playing like they simply wanted to preserve their lead rather than expand upon it, and, as we’ve seen already in this series, such a method has not proven to be all that successful, as it has hindered their drive and halted their momentum, which, to no surprise, is exactly what happened in Game 5.

Led by Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday, the Bucks bounced back late, taking and subsequently making what Boston’s defense was giving them which, unfortunately for them, were 3-pointers, as they hit all six of their attempts from distance during this stretch, thus generating more than half of their 33 points in the quarter from long range.

The C’s, on the other hand, opted to try and play it safe by solely settling for 2-pointers and drives to the hoop, as they took a resounding zero attempts from deep down the stretch–I know we’ve been saying they need to stop relying on the 3-point shot and start taking it to the rack more often in this series, but this was not the time to do so, especially when Milwaukee was on fire.

In the end, the Bucks’ scoring, defense (Holiday was an absolute pest in this department), and offensive rebounding (collected seven in the fourth alone, including the major put-back by Bobby Portis off of Giannis’ free throw miss to give them the lead with 11.4 seconds left) proved to be too much for Ime Udoka’s squad, as they fell in the closing seconds by a final score of 110-107 and, now, head to Milwaukee on the brink of elimination.

Despite the depressing turnout, there still were some positives to be taken away from the outing, such as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown‘s combined 60 point, 14 rebound, 10 assist performance.

That said, obviously with a game like this, the negative aspects are bound to be more glaring, such as their pedestrian 32 percent shooting performance from deep and the fact that there were eight players to take to the court in this outing yet only three (none of which were in the starting lineup) finished with a positive box plus-minus.

Simply put, Wednesday night’s loss was a true gut punch for Boston Celtics fans and, while we may not want to relive it, we at HH believe there is 1 stud and 1 dud from the devastating loss worth discussing: