MILWAUKEE _ The Milwaukee Bucks ran into a one-man wrecking crew Saturday night.
Isaiah Thomas had 37 points and eight assists to lead the Boston Celtics to a 112-108 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks Saturday night at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
Jae Crowder scored four of his 20 points on free throws in the final 28 seconds of overtime to put the Bucks away.
Boston won its third straight after squandering a 16-point second half lead and a 42-point first quarter, its best of the season.
Giannis Antetokounmpo led Milwaukee with 21 points, and Greg Monroe had 14 points and 13 rebounds. The Bucks have lost three in a row and eight of nine.
Boston built a six-point lead in overtime, but Tony Snell hit consecutive 3-pointers to tie it at 108. Crowder made two free throws on the ensuing possession with 28 seconds to go and two more to seal it with 10 seconds left after Antetokounmpo missed a contested shot in the lane.
The Celtics got out to a double-digit lead quickly and never gave it up. Crowder scored eight of the Celtics' first 11 points to help Boston get out to a nine-point lead in the first 2{ minutes.
That was just the beginning of what ended up as a 42-point first quarter for the Celtics. With Crowder leading the way with 11 points and Thomas chipping in 10, the Celtics picked apart the Bucks' defense on the way to 63.2 percent shooting from the field in the period in addition to 11-of-11 shooting from the free-throw line. Gerald Green put the exclamation point on the quarter by making a 25-footer before the buzzer that gave the Celtics a 42-27 lead after 12 minutes.
In that opening stanza, the Bucks got nothing from Antetokounmpo and Jabari Parker. Milwaukee's leading scorers combined to go 0-of-8 from the field as Michael Beasley shouldered the scoring load off the bench with 11 points.
Antetokounmpo made his first three shots of the second quarter, including a pair of dunks, to highlight an 8-0 run that brought the Bucks within eight, but that was as close as they would get. That's because Thomas subbed back in and went on a tear. He got fouled shooting a 3-pointer and made all three free throws, made a 26-footer and a 30-footer and hooked a left-handed layup over Snell on the way to scoring 13 points in the final six minutes of the second quarter, putting him at 23 at the half.
