Celtics move within two games of the top-seeded Bucks in the East following 140-99 alienation

Jayson Tatum scored 40 points, Jaylen Brown added another 30 and the Boston Celtics steamrolled the NBA-leading Milwaukee Bucks 140-99 on Thursday night in what is likely to be the Eastern Conference Finals in two months’ time.  

The Celtics (53-24) shot 22 of 43 from 3-point range and moved within two games of the Bucks (55-22) in the Eastern Conference standings. The Celtics won the season series with the Bucks 2-1, which would give Boston the tiebreaker if both teams finish with the same record.

Boston’s performance in those three games with Milwaukee should give the Celtics plenty of confidence that they could knock out the Bucks again if they meet in the postseason. 

The Celtics beat the Bucks in seven games in last season’s Eastern Conference semifinals, despite having their backs against the wall after going down 3-2 in the series. 

At the time, Milwaukee badly missed its second top-scorer in guard Khris Middleton, who was averaging 14.5 points per game in the postseason before suffering a medial collateral ligament sprain against the Chicago Bulls in the first round.

Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum scored 30 points in another dominant display against the Bucks

Celtics forward Jaylen Brown had 30 points, as Boston moved within two games of Milwaukee, who are the Eastern Conference’s leaders 

The Celtics also beat the Bucks 139-118 in Boston on Christmas Day and lost 131-125 in overtime on February 14. The Celtics didn’t play Brown, Tatum, Marcus Smart or Al Horford in that overtime loss.

Milwaukee took a hit on the floor as well as in the standings. Middleton left the game midway through the third quarter after taking an elbow to the face from Brown. The play resulted in a charging foul on Brown and caused Middleton to receive stitches on his upper lip.

Boston built a 114-74 lead through three periods, causing most of the starters for both teams to sit out the entire fourth quarter.

Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 24 points.

This matched the Bucks’ most lopsided loss of the season. They fell 142-101 at Memphis on December 15. Wednesday night’s matchup was also Milwaukee’s heaviest defeat against its Northeast rivals.

The Bucks were playing one night after a 149-136 victory at Indiana in which they shot a season-high 62.4 percent from the floor, with Jrue Holiday scoring 51 points and Antetokounmpo having 38 points, 17 rebounds and 12 assists. 

This marked the first time an NBA team had one player score at least 50 points and another have a triple-double with at least 35 points in the same game.

Milwaukee found the going quite a bit tougher on Thursday.

Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with 24 points in 25 minutes but shot 11 of 27 from the field

Bucks forward Khris Middleton goes down after taking an elbow to the face from Brown in the third quarter

Milwaukee head coach Mike Budenholzer has plenty of pondering to do if his side are to meet the Celtics later in the season, potentially in the playoffs

Antetokounmpo shot just 11 of 27, including 0 for 5 from 3-point range. Holiday started his night by sinking a 3-pointer, but went 1 of 7 the rest of the way and finished with just six points.

After the first eight-and-a-half minutes of the game featured nine lead changes and five ties, the Celtics seized control by going on a 29-9 over the last seven-plus minutes. Boston capped that spurt by scoring 13 straight points.

Boston didn’t let up the rest of the night.

Milwaukee’s Thanasis Antetokounmpo was ejected with 1:25 left for head-butting Boston’s Blake Griffin. The head-butting came after Griffin committed a flagrant-1 foul against Antetokounmpo. 

Griffin attempted to make a mockery out of the incident by trying on Brown’s protective facemask, soon afterwards. 

Up next for the Celtics is a home game against the playoff-chasing Utah Jazz on Friday. In their lone previous matchup this season, the Celtics lost 118-117 at Utah on March 18.

The Bucks hosts the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday. The Bucks are 1-2 against the 76ers this season, including a 133-130 home loss on March 4 that snapped Milwaukee’s 16-game winning streak.