Horford, Boston Celtics take down the Milwaukee Bucks, 96-89
It was a competitive game down to the buzzer as the Boston Celtics evened the season series against the Milwaukee Bucks with a convincing 96-89 win.
Al Horford dominated for the C's, with arguably his best offensive game in green coming in the historic MECCA. He finished with 27 points and 9 rebounds, while Kyrie Irving put up 24 points to go with 7 assists.
Jaylen Brown (2-for-10) struggled from the field all game long, and was pushed around on the defensive end by Giannis Antetokounmpo (28 pts, 10 reb, 7 ast).
The Celtics took control of the tempo in the first quarter from the opening tip. They played their game, drawing fouls and pushing the paint. That gave Boston an early lead, in part because of brilliance from Kyrie Irving.
Seriously, enjoy:
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 27, 2017
Past the Irving show, Al Horford also made some plays and the C's were able to contain Giannis to only four points thanks to Al's defense.KYRIEEE 😲 pic.twitter.com/WEZO3x31Xp— Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 27, 2017
In the second, Milwaukee was able to expose the Celtics' defense. Antetokounmpo added another seven to his scoring column, and the Bucks clawed to a 44-43 lead at the break.
It came alongside a scoring burst from reigning rookie-of-the-year Malcolm Brogdon who knocked down a three and a couple layups in the frame to help push the Bucks ahead.
Coming out of the break, the Greek Freak must have just watched an excerpt from Braveheart or something because he was fired up. He came out swinging and went straight at the C's defense for seven more points in the first two minutes.
That helped guide the Bucks to their biggest lead of the night of six in the opening half of the third frame, but Boston struck back before the final quarter break. A run that saw Horford knock down back-to-back corner threes reignited the Celtics offense, and of course Al found his way into the final shot of the fram:The exclamation point on that run was a buzzer beater oop to Al Horford:
Stevens subs in Kyrie and Horford w/ 0.5 secs left in 3Q, and Kyrie tosses an inbound oop to Horford for two at the buzzer! C's 72, Bucks 69— Marc D'Amico (@Marc_DAmico) October 27, 2017
72-69 Celtics heading into the final 12 minutes and the Celtics were re-energized, immediately ballooning a three-point-lead to seven, and then a Marcus Smart three pushed it to double digits.
That run sealed the game for Milwaukee, punctuated with more dominance from Horford, and impressive defense from rookies like Semi Ojeleye, and the Celtics finished off the Bucks, 96-89 on the road to even the season series at 1-1.