BOSTON — The Celtics did their job on Giannis Antetokounmpo, and still it wasn’t enough.
Though the Bucks star had to labor for the scoring part of his triple-double (24 points, 9-for-25 shooting, 13 rebounds, 12 assists), Milwaukee was even better at mobbing and bumping Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown as the Celtics sank under duress in a 101-89 loss in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The Celtics, mostly limited to 3-point attempts and long 2s by Milwaukee’s drop-down coverage, were not able to come up with much as Tatum (21 points, 6-for-18 shooting) and Brown (12 points, 4-for-13 shooting, seven turnovers) struggled to get going.
Despite two 3-pointers from Derrick White in the third quarter in his first since Game 1 of the Brooklyn series, the Celtics trailed at the start of the fourth quarter, 78-70.
The Celtics opened the fourth with five straight misses, four of them 3-point attempts from Payton Pritchard, until Horford hit a 3-pointer with 8:15 left. The problem? Horford’s shot came in the midst of a 12-3 Bucks run for a 92-75 lead.
Antetokounmpo followed up on the next Bucks possession by tossing the ball off the backboard and dunking the rebound for a 94-78 edge with 6:24 left.
Brown hit a pair of 3-pointers midway through the quarter, followed by a Grant Williams 3 that cut the Bucks edge to 96-84 with 3:49 left. But Antetokounmpo’s put-back dunk with just over two minutes left for a 101-87 lead salted it away.
Late in the second quarter, Marcus Smart, his right arm dangling in apparent pain, ran off the floor and headed for the locker room with a trainer, just as the Bucks were closing out with an 11-3 run for a 56-46 halftime lead. He was diagnosed with a right shoulder stinger and right quad contusion, and returned.
Though Tatum heated up late, he and Brown shot a combined 5 for 18 in the first half, and slowly lost hold shooting a steady diet of 3-pointers.
Tatum came out with back-to-back 3-pointers in the third quarter with Smart back on the floor, but the Bucks pushed their lead back out to 10 points. A White 3 helped take a bite out of that margin, and despite another from the Celtics guard, Milwaukee managed to hold onto a 78-70 lead at the end of the third.
The game got off to a prehistoric pace, with the Bucks taking a 27-24 first-quarter lead thanks to a 10-0 closing run as Tatum, in particular, had trouble finding space in the paint. He finished the quarter 0 for 4, with one point.
Tatum finally scored his first basket with 6:41 left in the half — he and Brown were a combined 2 for 11 at that point — and cut the Milwaukee lead to 36-34. With the turnovers and misses piling up, the Celtics fell prey to another Bucks run, this one a slow 11-2 burn for a 42-34 Milwaukee lead.
The Bucks then closed out the half with an 11-3 burst for a 56-46 halftime lead.
