Posted on May 9, 2019, by Travis Pulver
Heading into Wednesday night’s game against the Boston Celtics, the only thing that seemed capable of stopping the Milwaukee Bucks was themselves. If they gave the Celtics the opportunity to believe they could win, the Bucks would have a fight on their hands.
So, the made sure the Celtics understood how this game was going to go early on.
Even though they came out flat and struggling to hit shots, the Celtics didn’t make it easy in the first quarter. While they did fall behind early on, the Celtics made a late push to get within three at the end of the quarter, 22-19.
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But then the second quarter started, and it was pretty much all Milwaukee the rest of the way.
A three-point lead turned into a 13-point one for the Bucks at the half, 52-39, and expanded to an 18-point lead after the third.
“Everybody was ready to play,” Bucks guard George Hill said after the game, via ESPN. “Everybody was ready for the opportunity to put them away as quick as we can.”
In the fourth quarter, it almost looked like the Celtics had accepted their fate and wanted to get it over with. The 18-point deficit quickly became a 20-point one and reached as high as 26 before settling in at 25 when the game finally came to an end, 116-91.
With the win, the Bucks earn a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2001.
“At the end of the day, we realize we’ve never been there before,” Giannis Antetokounmpo said after the game, via ESPN. “We’re really hungry to achieve our goals. That’s all we care about. As long as we play hard, we really don’t care about what anybody has to say.”
People may or may not have much to say after this one, but the winner of the 76ers-Raptors team will have plenty to worry about after watching this one. Most of the time, the Bucks lean heavily on Antetokounmpo on the offensive end. While he did lead the team with 20 points, the Bucks had six other players score in double figures.
One of those six was Malcolm Brogdon who had been out with an injury the last few weeks. He scored ten points in 17 minutes off the bench.
The Celtics needed to put their best foot forward if they were going to have a chance at recording the upset win. But instead, they had a dismal display of shooting going 31.2 percent from the floor (29-93) and 17.9 percent from the three-point line (7-39).
Kyrie Irving led the way for Boston with just 15 points after going 6-21 from the floor and 1-7 from three-point territory.
So, now the Milwaukee Bucks get to wait and see if the Toronto Raptors can close out their series with the Philadelphia 76ers. The Raptors dominated Game Five Tuesday night, 125-89, to take a 3-2 lead in the series. They are a two-point favorite to win Game Six in Philadelphia Thursday night.