The Boston Celtics played spirited basketball throughout their battle with the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals but were unable to emerge victorious, falling 113-101 at the final horn and spoiling Marcus Smart’s return to the court after the fiery fifth-year guard missed the first seven games of Boston’s postseason run.
Milwaukee’s length caused Kyrie Irving, the Celtics’ best offensive player, to have yet another rough shooting night, going 7-22 from the field and 1-6 from three as Giannis Antetokounmpo put together one of the most dominant performances he’s has this series with 39 points on 15-22 shooting from the field and 2-5 shooting from three as well as 16 rebounds (five offensive). As a result, Irving was relegated to the role of a facilitator, finding himself bottled up by multiple Bucks defenders.
He did well in this role, using his ball-handling and threat of scoring to attract scorers and finding the open man to rack up 10 assists.
In fact, each of the starters would shoot effectively from the floor with veteran forward Marcus Morris (18 points, 14 rebounds) would play with admirable effort and much needed efficiency, second-year forward Jayson Tatum (17 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists) had a bounceback game after struggling through the semifinal round and both Jaylen Brown (17 points, six rebounds) and Al Horford (20 points and five assists) providing timely baskets.
However, the Bucks’ bench outplayed Celtics’ for the second straight game, with Smart, Terry Rozier and Gordon Hayward going a combined 3-17 from the field, and frankly being outplayed by Bucks point guard George Hill (15 points on 6-11 shooting from the field) all by his lonesome.
Heading back to Milwaukee for Game 5, Boston is now on the ropes and Irving will need to play like the superstar he is if the Celtics want to prevent another loss.
