The Celtics hold off Bucks in overtime: Game 1 takeaways

A rather sleepy game in Boston ended with an out-of-body dream experience and overtime for the Celtics and Bucks.

The Boston Celtics were playing without Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward, Marcus Smart, and Daniel Theis. The Milwaukee Bucks brought along everyone but former head coach Jason Kidd.

The game opened with an easy exchange of baskets, an aggressively off-the-mark Jaylen Brown, and seven Milwaukee turnovers in the first quarter.

Toward the start of the second quarter, Boston led by double digits. By halftime, the home team Celtics trailed Milwaukee by three points. Kris Middleton’s jumper looked smooth and effortless, John Henson blocked shots, and the world stopped to admire Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Still, even as one team’s run responded to another, this game couldn’t quite shake the mood and temperament of being an awkward first date or a lazy Sunday Andy Samberg. Perhaps the moment best personifying such lackadaisical sentiments was when Milwaukee’s Tyler Zeller and Boston’s Greg Monroe each checked into the game toward the end of the first quarter. You see, each player in the not so distant past wore the opposite uniform and their meeting on the court played out like Spider-man seeing Spider-man in an internet meme. The moment was clever, maybe even grin-inspiring, and then the moment evaporated into Charles Barkley talking about how much Al Horford needs to score.

The second half unfolded in a similar trancelike rate, and then the mechanics of the sport started to click into place, producing the most thrilling basketball sequence of the weekend.

The clock stands still with two minutes and forty-seven second left in regulation. The shot clock just sounded. Jayson Tatum air balled a hopeless shot.

Milwaukee takes possession, calls a clear out for Giannis. The layup is a participation grade.

Terry Rozier hits a three for Boston. Khris Middleton returns the favor, off an assist by Eric Bledsoe.

Marcus Morris dribbles to pretty much every small town in New England looking for something to do with the ball before drilling a rather ridiculous shot with 1:45 left on the clock. He will end the game with 21 points. This bucket is his last, but is accompanied by the sound of pulleys lowering a god from the rafters.

Giannis looks to drive. He does so and dunks it, but he’s called for the offensive foul. Morris drew the charge. The sound of more pulleys, more cranks.

With 1:22 on the clock, Giannis makes two foul shots. His team trails by three.

On the ensuing possession, Morris grabs a huge offensive rebound and passes to Horford who ends up at the line hitting only one of two free throws.

Bledsoe trims the deficit for Milwaukee to one point. The game is in what will surely be its final minute.

Horford holds the ball just above the foul line. He pivots. The ball swings round in his two larger than life hands. He’s thinking about everything every coach has ever taught him. The process is nauseating in its beauty. He almost turns the ball over, which opens a path to the basket. He drives and is fouled with 32.4 second remaining, and this game deserves foul shots and long pauses and snow in April.

Giannis and Middleton toss the ball back and forth, moving with just a little more urgency than a warmup drill. When Giannis dunks it home, his team trails 94 to 93, but a rodent living underground somewhere moves the date for spring forward.

Horford is now at the line again with 15.2 seconds on the clock, and that same underground rodent hits snooze and rolls over in bed. Who knows how many more weeks of winter? Horford makes both foul shots. Somewhere his wife pens a rebuttal to all his years in Atlanta.

Giannis finds Brogdon whose shot ties the game at 96. Only 10.1 seconds remain.

Rozier receives the inbounds pass with Bledsoe guarding him. As this happens, Jaylen Brown wheels round the baseline with Horford running staggered interference. Rozier takes a soft, slow dribble to his left, waiting on Brown to surface above Morris’ screen. Bledsoe plays the passing lane aggressively, and Milwaukee also switches off the screen—something it’s been doing most of the game—, but the clarity of Rozier’s movements after that first, faint dribble suggest he never sincerely considered Brown or even Morris rolling to the basket as options.

Hinting that all that other backside movement might lead somewhere Rozier dribbles to his left. Then he pushes a hard, quick dribble to his right. All of this is done with his left hand, and Bledsoe is no longer in position to do anything. He’s off somewhere with George Clooney’s character in Gravity as Rozier steps back behind the arc by dribbling the ball with his right hand through his legs. He is a man existing alone in orbit—maybe he’s standing in the driveway of his boyhood and all he can hear is the breeze through the trees, maybe there are wind chimes. The ball falls through the net for a 99-96 lead. He holds the pose. He holds the pose. He salutes the bench with his wrist cocked and his thumb and index finger forming a complete circle.

Half a second is on the clock. That god descending from the rafters can surely smell the cigar smoke.

Khris Middleton hits a ridiculous, just ridiculous three off the Milwaukee inbounds—the fourth longest shot in history to take place in a game-tying or go-ahead scenario. He’s also in a driveway, but he’s playing horse with some drunk uncle, maybe he is the drunk uncle. What an awesomely ridiculous sequence of events.

This series really is about set plays versus just instant talent. Instant. Khris Middleton’s quick release or Giannis’ strides spanning the globe in the blink of an eye.

It’s playoff time in Boston.

Takeaways

The matchup between Al Horford and Giannis Antetokounmpo is actually mesmerizing, but not simply because of Giannis’ athleticism.

Each player scored the first bucket for his team. Giannis finished with a line of 35 points, 13 rebounds, and 7 assists. Horford measured up with 24 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists, and a ton of stuff that is difficult to quantify. Almost every Morris drive to the hoop involved either a screen by Horford or Horford running interference. And, with so many of Boston’s experienced playmakers injured, moving the ball through Horford, as Boston so often does, isn’t a bad idea.

He’s not Giannis, but he’s also not out of his league. While not a perfect comparison, the matchup reminds me of when a focused Boris Diaw played his most important basketball when San Antonio faced off against the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Miami Heat. Athletically, OKC’s young core and LeBron James were in another dimension than the old Spur, but the dexterity of his game made him ample proof that there’s more than one way to win at basketball. He even found a way to contribute defensively during those matchups in ways that no one imagined possible.

Well, that’s what comes to mind whenever Horford blocks Jabari Parker (as he did twice in the second quarter) or creates offense without even touching the ball. In short, I wouldn’t be surprised if he played Minecraft between possessions, just world-building for the hell of it and without anyone else giving a damn (except for Danny Ainge who is probably doing the same thing).

Milwaukee’s 20 turnovers really eased the offensive burden for an injury-riddled Boston squad. Giannis ended the game with four turnovers, but the main culprit was Eric Bledsoe. Considering how Rozier victimized him at the end of regulation, his poor-shooting performance throughout the game, and his five turnovers, it just wasn’t a good day for the guy who doesn’t like hair salons.

Watching these two teams play is like watching a non-existent movie titled Young and Younger.

Giannis is 23. Khris Middleton is 26. With the exception of 40-year-old Jason Terry, Milwaukee didn’t play a guy over the age of 28. The primes of their entire core are still on the horizon.

On the other hand, Boston started three guys who are Giannis’ age or younger, and the lowest point total by any of them was Jayson Tatum’s 19, with Brown scoring 20 and Rozier 23.

Marcus Morris scored 21 off the bench, and the ancient Horford set the pace at 24. Morris is 28-years-old; the same age as Bledsoe.

Rumors abound that Boston might potentially trade for Kawhi Leonard, but why? Kyring Irving is 25. Gordon Hayward is 27. This team can wait, and yet maybe patience isn’t necessary.

The individual scoring totals from the series’ first game may have been a perfect storm for Boston. Then again, maybe like Philadelphia they are this young and this good.

Injuries are easier to hide in the regular season when most teams are willing to let their rotations unspool like a kite string. If Boston were healthy, Brown and Rozier are probably coming off the bench and Tatum’s minutes are being split all sorts of ways. Move them into the starting lineup and they are arguably playing tougher minutes. They seem un-phased and undeterred. Head coach Brad Stevens could be credited; everyone in a Boston uniform knows his role and plays with confidence.

But there is also a lot of confidence because these guys are not only well-coached but super athletic to boot.

Next: This is not the Warriors-Spurs matchup we wanted

With 1:22 left in overtime, Tatum makes a move not many would dare. Moving to his left and left of the basket, he pushes the ball up with his right and under Giannis’ outstretched arm. He looks like Lot tossing a salt shaker into the wind no less. He makes it, and he could probably make it again.

People want to discuss this series in terms of Giannis’ freakishness and Stevens’ play calling, but Boston is about more than blueprints and architecture. The athletic particles—the raw human forms playing for the Celtics—are something to behold in their own right. Giannis isn’t the only freak in this series, and that’s why Boston should believe.