Last night in the NBA: Why fans should anticipate more games like Milwaukee-Boston

If you were under a rock for the last 14 hours, and you only looked at the recap of the Milwaukee Bucks-Boston Celtics game — you were probably surprised to see Payton Pritchard led the team in points, rebounds, and assists. Yesterday's game was unlike anything we've seen from Milwaukee or Boston this season.

Here are a few highlights (or lowlights, depending on your stance):

• At one point, Milwaukee went on a 25-0 run. The Celtics missed 16 of their first 17 3-point attempts.
• The Celtics' starters finished the game 0-10 from beyond the arc.
• The Bucks' largest lead of the night was 43.
• This game was so far from competitive that, at halftime, the Celtics had already decided to pull starters for the remainder of the game.

Awesome if you're a Bucks fan, sure. However, it's likely that this trouncing of the East's top-ranked team points to a larger problem in the league.

No rest for the wicked in the NBA

As a result of such an uneventful game, TNT paused its broadcast midway through the third quarter, switching to the Knicks-Mavs game, which was still a 20-point deficit. Across the league, that very same night, the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Portland Trail Blazers 139-77, the highest point differential by a team in a game this season. In the aftermath of all this, Tom Haberstroh, an analytics insider for the Trail Blazers, took to his Substack to share his findings. It turns out, these types of games will keep happening and here's why.

Per Tom Haberstroh:

"On more than one occasion, it’s been described to me by players and coaches that enduring an NBA season is like continually playing on an empty tank with little hope of ever seeing the gas light turn off. With 82 games in 170 or so days, there’s just very little time to recharge."

According to Haberstoh's research, 10 teams have played on zero days' rest on national TV this season (ESPN, TNT, ABC). The no-rest teams have a record of 4-6 in those games. 

For the Celtics, this was the second night of a back-to-back, their fifth game in seven nights, and the night after an overtime game in a different time zone. For the Blazers, last night's game was their sixth of a seven-game road trip. In other words, rest is crucial for NBA players. (This is shocking, I know.) After all, there's a reason why shootarounds aren't held early in the morning.

At least, the Celtics' performance last night demonstrated that very clearly. As Haberstroh explained on The Finder, "With tired legs and weary minds, players on no-days’ rest see their percentages plummet,"

Unfortunately, fans must brace themselves for more games like last night's. Haberstroh reports indicate there are 33 games left on the national TV slate with at least one team coming in on the second night of a back-to-back. There will be another one next week when the Philadelphia 76ers play the Denver Nuggets, as Philly will be in Houston the night before. All in all, with 30 teams and 82 games to be played, back-to-back games will continue to be the norm this season. With that said, fans should expect many more games like this.