The Boston Celtics have played their fair share of important games against the Milwaukee Bucks. Any time you see a team frequently in the postseason, there’s going to be some level of distaste present every time you match up with them, even if Milwaukee’s season has gone about as poorly as possible.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is hurt for the second time already, the team isn’t even in the East’s top-10, and they’d lost 10 of 12 heading into this one. Their mediocrity took the pregame juice out of Thursday’s meeting.
Once the game tipped off, however, it was on.
Any time anything went right for the Bucks in this game, which was more frequently than many would’ve predicted, you could spot Thanasis Antetokounmpo dancing around on Milwaukee’s bench on the corner of your TV screen.
Like, he’s literally only on the team and in the NBA because he’s Giannis’ brother. There’s no reason why he should get away with jumping around and running on the court the way he does. It’s insane.
Kyle Kuzma and Bobby Portis made Celtics fans sick to their stomachs
To make matters worse, Kyle Kuzma just started sinking every shot he took. The former Los Angeles Lakers forward got going, and it felt like there was nothing Boston could do to slow him down. He literally made a hook shot in this game.
Mind you, Kuzma came into the night averaging just 13 points per game.
There’s just something annoying about him. Maybe it’s the tattoos, maybe it’s the dumb outfits he’ll wear for pregame tunnel photo shoots, maybe it’s the fact that Lakers fans spent years trying to convince the world Kumza was better than Jayson Tatum.
It’s painful to see him succeed.
The real cherry on top was Bobby Portis getting in Jaylen Brown’s face midway through the third quarter. Portis scored back-to-back buckets, then just started screaming at JB.
Joke’s on him, the Celtics needed all the help they could get in the third quarter. They gladly accepted the free point from Portis’s technical foul.
Spoiler alert: the technical free throw did absolutely nothing for the snakebitten Celtics. They got absolutely bludgeoned in the second half and had their win streak snapped by Kyle Kuzma, Bobby Portis, and the boys.
As if this couldn’t have gotten any worse, Milwaukee wound up with a large enough lead to actually give Thanasis playing time. If you looked up “sickening” in the dictionary, this game would’ve been it.
Thankfully, this was a regular-season game in December.
In a year, it’ll mean nothing. Hopefully, the same will be able to be said when the end of the season rolls around, and the Celtics are preparing for a playoff run while the Bucks book tickets to Cancun.