The Boston Celtics walked into TD Garden on Monday night with a 3-0 record, staring down a matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks. Khris Middleton was sidelined, as he’s still recovering from offseason ankle surgery (on both ankles), but Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard came to play.
Both Bucks stars put up amazing scoring numbers, but the Celtics, whose stars struggled at times, still found a way to compete. It was a tight game for the third three quarters, but Boston pulled away at the end of the third. And while the Bucks made some small runs in the final frame, it just wasn’t enough. The Celtics earned a 119-108 win.
Here are three studs and three duds from the Celtics’ win over the Bucks on Monday night.
BONUS: Jaylen Brown had a terrible first half, but he was a huge reason the Celtics won this game. After shooting 2-of-8 through the first two quarters, he was unconscious in the third and fourth (8-of-11). Brown got to the rim at will, mixing in a healthy dose of middys, too.
Jrue Holiday deserves a shoutout for his clutch second-half performance, too.
Stud - Payton Pritchard
The Sixth Man of the Year campaign continued for Payton Pritchard on Monday night.
Boston’s offense was sputtering a bit with Jayson Tatum on the sidelines, but Pritchard was right there to pick them up. Deep three after deep three, he slowly wore down the Bucks, and Doc Rivers even had to call a timeout mid-way through the second to try to cool him down.
Pritchard’s impact wasn’t limited to the offensive end, though. He nabbed an impressive steal on Delon Wright late in the first. He hounded the Bucks guard, diving on top of him on the ground to secure the steal.
In the first half alone, Pritchard put up 19 points, two rebounds, and two assists while shooting 7-of-10 from the floor and a red-hot 5-of-9 from distance.
By the time the third quarter wrapped up, Pritchard only poured in one more bucket, but it was a big one. In true Pritchard fashion, he drained a huge side-step three as the clock wound down.
Dud - Jayson Tatum
For large stretches of this game, it looked like Jayson Tatum had no interest in passing the ball. Too often did he put his head down and focus on getting his own shot.
The issue came to its head late in the second quarter, and it bled into the third. Every time Tatum got the ball, he tried to either force up a bad three or got lost on the drive.
Tatum let the lack of foul calls get to him, too, picking up a tech in the third.
Milwaukee was pressing up to the level, and they took away the pull-up, step-in threes that Tatum has been thriving on this season. He didn’t respond to the shift in coverage well.
Tatum was anything but his normal self on Monday. He’s evolved into an incredible playmaker, but his mission against the Bucks seemed more individual than team-oriented.
Stud - Al Horford
Giannis Antetokounmpo is one of the best players in the league, and he still put up a decent statistical performance, but Al Horford was defending him very well, especially in the half-court.
Boston did everything they could to keep Horford on Antetokounmpo. This resulted in some easy post-ups for Brook Lopez, but Antetokounmpo wasn’t able to dominate the paint like he usually does.
The Greek Freak made his money in transition and was an above-average playmaker, but there’s only so much a team can do to slow him down. Horford is as good of an answer as there is in the league today, and whenever Antetokounmpo got switched onto another Celtic, he got almost anything he wanted.
His efforts keeping Antetokounmpo away from the painted area led to some impressive defensive stands and even a thunderous block in the first half.
Antetokounmpo found a rhythm in the third quarter. He got downhill over and over again, pouring in buckets. But still, Horford was the answer whenever Boston needed one.
The 38-year-old deserves a ton of credit for his defensive showing against Antetokounmpo.
Dud - Brook Lopez cross-match
Since Horford was guarding Antetokounmpo for the entire game, Brown, among others, was left to match up with Lopez down low. The result was a flurry of offensive rebounds for the big man.
Lopez was feasting in the post and gobbling up a ton of boards, leading to easy buckets and and-ones.
As Horford shut Antetokounmpo out of the paint for long stretches, Lopez reaped the rewards. Milwaukee looked more than comfortable letting him work down low, and they got some extra possessions because of the mismatch, too.
Dud - Xavier Tillman
These are the types of games where Xavier Tillman should thrive. He’s a big body and has proven capable of guarding stars in the past. But Antetokounmpo was a bit too much for him to handle.
Anyone not named Horford struggled to contain Antetokounmpo, and Tillman was a part of that group. And when he got switched onto Damian Lillard, he just looked a step behind.
Offensively, Tillman was off-beat, too.
Stud - Derrick White and Jordan Walsh
These two get to share a spot on the studs list because they completely turned the game on its head.
The game was close in the third quarter. Both teams were going back and forth. But that’s when Derrick White got hot. He nailed a pair of triples to go along with some great offensive decision-making, and he even stopped Antetokounmpo on a downhill drive.
As for Walsh, his energy was crucial. Boston missed a shot in transition, but Walsh sprinted the length of the floor and contested the rebound. He didn’t get the board, but he drew a foul, maintaining possession for the Celtics.
Then, he rose up over the entire Milwaukee defense to get a put-back bucket on an ensuing possession. TD Garden went ballistic.
White and Walsh changed the energy of the entire game.