The Celtics, the second in the eastern region, owe their victory over the Bucks, led by the duo Jason Tatum and Gaylen Brown, by scoring 40 and 30 points, respectively, with five rebounds and the same number of assists for the first, and eight rebounds for the second.
The Boston Celtics, who regained their balance after losing to the Dallas Mavericks 111-130 on Tuesday, imposed control over the course of the match that brought together the two best teams in the league, as they were ahead of the Western Conference leaders, the Denver Nuggets, especially the first three quarters, which they won by a comfortable difference of 34-26 and 41-. 21 and 39-27, before winning the latter by one point, 26-25.
The Celtics strengthened its position in second place with a record of 53 wins against 24 losses compared to 55 wins and 22 losses for the Bucks, five games before the end of the regular season in their exciting struggle for the top spot in the region, which seems difficult for the Celtics to grab, as it needs to win all its remaining matches and lose Milwaukee for two matches to be equal. On the top.
Al Horford scored 14 points and substitute Malcolm Brogdon added the same balance, reinforcing the Celtics’ lead.
“fighting play”
On the other hand, the Greek giant Yannis Antetokounmpo emerged as usual in the ranks of the Bucks, scoring 24 points with seven rebounds, and Chris Middleton added 13 points, knowing that he was forced not to complete the match in the middle of the third quarter due to a facial injury he suffered after a blow from Brown.
Tensions rose between the two teams at the end of the match when substitute Thanassis Antetokounmpo, Yannis’ brother, was sent off due to a light header against Celtics veteran Blake Griffin.
“We just wanted to be aggressive and play good basketball, and that’s what we did,” Brown said.
“We are all preparing for the play-offs, where the fittest will survive. We want to be the last team at the top and they are one of the obstacles we will have to overcome.”
On the other hand, the superstar Tatum played down the importance of the victory over the Bucks, indicating that Boston will face another obstacle on Friday against the Utah Jazz.
“We have to forget about tonight. We want to show how good our team is with the way we respond tomorrow,” Tatum said.
“That’s all that matters at this point,” he added.
Pax star Antetokounmpo said the result was a timely reminder of what might happen in the knockout stages if the two sides meet again.
“We know what lies ahead. It’s not hard to understand. If you’re not focused, if you don’t play hard, they will agree on us.”
“As simple as that. They did it tonight and won by 40. If you don’t attack them and make things difficult for them, they will beat us. It’s the truth.”
And he added, “Now we have this in our heads, and it is up to us to see how we deal with it. If we go out and play the same way, we will get the same result.”
In the second game, which was held on Thursday evening, New Orleans stopped a series of four consecutive victories for its host, the Denver Nuggets, when it beat it 107-88.
New Orleans regained its balance after losing to the defending champion Golden State Warriors on Tuesday, achieving its 39th win in 77 games and snatching eighth place from the Los Angeles Lakers.
Brandon Angran imposed himself as a star in the match by achieving “Triple Double”, scoring 31 points with 11 rebounds and 10 assists, CJ McCollum added 23 points and each of the Lithuanian giants Jonas Valacionas and Trey Murphy 15 points with 12 rebounds for the first.
On the other hand, Jamal Murray was the best scorer in the ranks of the Nuggets, who missed the services of Serbian giant Nikola Jokic due to a calf injury, by scoring 21 points with seven assists.
