Boston Celtics: Despite Game 2 shellacking, team still rising together

Following a Game 2 shellacking at the hands of Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks, the Boston Celtics are confident they will bounce back strong.

After a 22-point Game 1 loss to the Boston Celtics, the Milwaukee Bucks needed to respond. They certainly did that, running away with a 123-102 victory to tie the Eastern Conference Semifinals matchup 1-1.

While Giannis Antetokounmpo reminded everyone of why he is the Greek Freak, scoring 29 points,15 of those points in the third quarter), the Celtics went ice cold in the second half of the game after going in at the half down just four points.

Unlike Game 1, no one seemed to have the hot hand for the Celtics. In fact, Kyrie Irving (4 of 18 for nine points) probably had the worst playoff game of his career. Add to the fact that Jayson Tatum, Gordon Hayward, Jaylen Brown and the rest of his supporting cast also struggled offensively, the Celtics were simply lucky to lose by just 21 points.

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Following the game, Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens summed up how Game 2 went in Milwaukee.

"“Well I thought they dominated a lot in the first and we were lucky to be down four,” Stevens admitted, as transcribed by NESN. “I thought that they owned their space on both ends of the court better than we did, and I thought our reaction to that was to settle on offense and it led to some run outs and then it just steamrolled on us.”"

That third quarter in which the Milwaukee Bucks outscored the Celtics by 21 points is exactly the steamrolling Stevens is talking about. While the Bucks continued to hit their barrage of deep bombs (20 3-pointers on the night), the C’s looked discombobulated on the offensive end.

It was the complete opposite of Game 1 when those 3-pointers weren’t dropping for the Bucks and the Celtics kept Antetokounmpo out of rhythm. But the Bucks did what they were supposed to do and the key for the Boston Celtics is how they respond with the series shifting back to Boston.

As Brad Stevens went on to point out, the team with more urgency won on Tuesday night. It is just as simple as that. The good thing for the Celtics is that Kyrie Irving is not going to have that bad of an offensive night and Jayson Tatum will eventually get it going in this series.

Still a different Celtics team

There was also another positive not to the blowout loss. Instead of mopping and pointing fingers like they did during the regular season, the Boston Celtics starters were up cheering players like Robert Williams and Guerschon Yabusele when the game was decided.

They also have confidence they will bounce back. Take away getting outscored by 21 points in that third quarter, the Celtics won two quarters of the game as bad as their offense was and the Bucks hitting just about every 3-pointer they launched, including seven from Khris Middleton who added 28 points.

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In all, just like the Greek Freak responded in Game 2, Kyrie Irving needs to respond in Game 3, and he is up for the challenge.

"“This is what I signed up for,” Irving said following the game. “This is what Boston traded for me for. This is what you live for. This is why you play, for the playoffs.”"

With the team returning to Boston, the confidence the team is exhibiting and now with home court advantage, expect a lights out performance by Irving and a Boston Celtics team ready to serve their response.

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