MILWAUKEE _ The Boston Celtics are no strangers to shutting down a party at the MECCA.
They knocked the Milwaukee Bucks out of the playoffs on the court there in 1974 and 1986. On Thursday night they yet again sent a sellout crowd home unhappy with a 96-89 victory over the Bucks in the team's "Return to the MECCA" game at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.
"The atmosphere was great," Bucks coach Jason Kidd said. "I thought it was everything it was so supposed to be. It just wasn't a pretty game to watch."
Celtics center Al Horford vexed the Bucks all night long. He scored a team-high 27 points, going 11 of 14 from the field including 4 of 5 on 3-point attempts.
On the other end, Horford tackled the assignment of guarding Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo and gave him trouble throughout the game, battling him both outside and in.
Horford can move his feet," Kidd said. "You've got to give them credit, they packed the paint and made it tough on Giannis. Again, Giannis had some great looks. He also found some teammates. He did what he was supposed to do, but the defensive end is where we need to get better."
With the Celtics putting an emphasis on shutting Antetokounmpo out of any easy looks inside, the Bucks never got into a strong flow offensively. Antetokounmpo finished with 28 points _ including back-to-back 3-pointers with the Bucks down late in the fourth quarter _ to go with 10 rebounds and seven assists.
But quality looks were hard to come by for Antetokounmpo, who came into the game leading the league with nearly 37 points per game, and his help just wasn't consistent enough. Milwaukee never scored more than 25 points in a quarter and went out quietly with just 20 in the fourth. Khris Middleton and Malcolm Brogdon each had 15 points in the loss and Tony Snell added 11. No one else was in double figures.
"He's special," Brogdon said of Antetokounmpo. "He's our leader; we follow his lead.
"But I think that sometimes we've got to help him and we've got to be there for him like he's there for us. Continuing to trust each other and continuing to make sure it's a reciprocal relationship going forward I think we'll be successful."
The Bucks got off to a slow start, with no one taking the reins offensively in the first quarter. Antetokounmpo had just four points and Middleton, who made just one of his first five attempts, ultimately straightened things out to finish the period with six points.
Milwaukee bounced back in the second quarter, but it wasn't because they cracked the Celtics' defense. The Bucks turned a five-point deficit at the start of the quarter into a one-point halftime lead thanks to their own defense and some ill-advised shots from Boston. The Celtics missed their first seven shots of the second quarter and couldn't generate any offense from long range, going just 1 of 11 on 3-point attempts in the period.
"I thought the ball just didn't move tonight as it has in the first couple games," Kidd said. "It's a great lesson learned, we'll watch it tomorrow and understand how we got to move the ball. We got some good looks but when the ball didn't move it wasn't a pretty game to watch."
Antetokounmpo finally strung a few buckets together at the start of the third quarter with nine points in less than five minutes. He only added two more by the end of the period, though, and didn't score again until his 3-pointers in the final few minutes of the game.
The Bucks built a seven-point lead midway through the third, but Horford turned that around in short order. He hit Jaylen Brown for a 3-pointer then a couple minutes later hit back-to-back 3-pointers to put the Celtics ahead. With 0.5 seconds remaining in the period, he popped an inbound pass in to beat the buzzer.
Boston took a three-point lead into the fourth quarter and never relinquished it. The Celtics built that lead to 12 points midway through the period before Snell sank back-to-back 3-pointers, bringing the capacity crowd to its feet and forcing a timeout. The Bucks pulled within five with under three minutes left, but missed shots and a pair of Middleton turnovers brought a 6-0 run from Boston that put the game away.
Kyrie Irving, who finished with 24 points, figured prominently in that run, scoring on a driving layup and then cutting into the lane for a basket to help keep the game out of reach.
"He's versatile, he's relentless," Brogdon said. "When you think he's not live, when you think he's not going to go at you he does and there's really no weakness in his offensive game."
