The Boston Celtics have now tied the Eastern conference semifinal series 1-1 against the Milwaukee Bucks after a 109-86 victory at the TD Garden.
The dynamic duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown led the way for the Celtics and combined for 59 points— Brown dropped a 30 piece and was 6-of-10 from deep, while Tatum finished with 29 points and 8 assists.
“Locked in from last game, locked in from shootaround,” Tatum says, per The Athletic. “If I was a betting man, I would have bet that JB was gonna have a great game. And he set the tone, and that was big for us. Just how aggressive he was coming out making the right plays for himself and for others. He got us going tonight.”
Brown was electric in the first half, scoring 17 points in the first quarter.
“Just how you respond means everything in this League,” Brown says. “We didn’t play how we wanted to in the first game, and we couldn’t come back and drop another game at home. We knew we had to come out and play like our season was on the line.”
While the Celtics were without DPOY Marcus Smart, who was out with a bruised right thigh he suffered in Game 1, the C’s still held it down on the defensive end and limited Giannis Antetokounmpo to 28 points, which he scored mostly in the second half of the game.
“Strong bodies, being active, being physical—that’s pretty much it,” Antetokounmpo says on the Celtics’ defense making it tough for him inside. “It’s gotten tougher to find your teammates.”
Game 3 is set to go down on Saturday in Milwaukee.
