The Celtics shot 46.5%, the Bucks 16.7%. All Rights Reserved. So here they were Friday night with all those bad memories, on the road, against the NBAs defending champions and the two-time Most Valuable Player, facing elimination. After the defending champs dispatched the Chicago Bulls last night, the Eastern Conference Semifinals is set between Milwaukee and Boston. The Celtics are up to 4th place in the East and suddenly in position to compete for the conferences top seed. We still havent seen Kevin Durant on the floor, but I have theSunsfourth here. It doesnt feel entirely impossible for the Wests current third seed to sneak into the Finals. Here are three key takeaways from the game: The Bucks should have lost on Wednesday night, and 99 times out of 100 they would have considering the circumstances. Injuries in the frontcourt have opened up an opportunity for Griffin to make a stronger impact over the last couple games, and he's taking full advantage of it. After scoring 10-plus points just twice in his first 22 games this season, Griffin has been in double-digits twice over the last three games. Giannis, Jrue and Bobby come up HUGE down the stretch of an instant-classic Game 5 to put the @Bucks up 3-2!Relive the final minutes pic.twitter.com/eefBry3ywl. Bucks celtics sixers tie breaker. 8 spot in the playoffs and a matchup with the No. Its no wonder the game had massive playoff-seeding implications for both teams, and the 127-121 Bucks victory moved them into the No. what a series for the veteran, Smooooooooooth Jrue pic.twitter.com/j3ojCEahJx, smart just baited giannis into an offensive foul. 9:20 pm ET, Jayson Tatum turnaround mid-range jumper: make, Jayson Tatum fadeaway mid-range jumper: miss, Jaylen Brown pull-up mid-range jumper: miss. The NBA will have a pair of them Sunday, with Celtics and Bucks deciding the Miami Heats dance partner for the East finals before Phoenix and Dallas hash things out to see which faces Golden State in the West. In fact, Im nervous about putting them this low. T Cleveland Cavaliers. The Bucks had only Jrue Holiday, with 17 points on 17 shots, and Pat Connaughton (14), helping Antetokounmpo with the scoring. Antetokounmpo is averaging 29.9 with two games to play. But what he did in saving the Celtics season for at least another 42 hours or so upped his profile and reputation another couple levels. To get to Embiid's 30.4, Giannis would have to average over 47 points over his final two games. A Celtics win would push Milwaukee (.627) to first place, Boston would take over second thanks to owning the tiebreaker over Miami as the two teams would have matching 48-29 records (.623), while Philadelphia (.613) would remain in fourth place. After Antetokounmpo picked up his fourth foul with nearly 20 minutes left in the game, the Celtics got wrapped up in trying to force his fifth and, hey, maybe his sixth. The Celtics MVP candidate was tossed amidst his third rough shooting night in a row. Things to know:. From that point on, they scored just six points and shot 2-for-8 from the field. 2022 Playoffs: East Semifinal | Celtics (2) vs. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Still, the Sixers havent shown they can go to the heights the Bucks and Celtics have. If the Celtics finish with the No. Celtics seeding watch: What's at stake for C's entering Bulls game, could do them a solid in their quest for an ideal NBA playoff draw, Forsberg: Marcus Smart tells all on pushing the Jays, leading C's turnaround. Dallas hosts Portland and San Antonio, and the Warriors are at San Antonio and at New Orleans. he'll have a chance to tie things up with 14.2 remaining, tatum goes quick out of the timeout and draws a foul, bucks have made six threes in the fourth quarter. Bucks vs. Celtics. Each team has two remaining games. As we move past head-to-head in the tiebreaker scenarios, Miami has two advantages: they have already won their division and they currently have the top conference record of any team in the East. Here are the remaining schedules for the Raptors, Nets and Hawks, who are battling Brooklyn for the No. Their tie-breaker difference in the standings is the reason Boston got homecourt advantage in this series, which now means Game 7 at . Smart and Theis combined for 29 of the Celtics 38 points in the quarter. Milwaukee and Boston are tied 2-2 for their season series, they're both division winners, and if this ends up as a tie, it will mean they have identical 33-19 conference records, too. DraftKings Sportsbook has the Bucks favored by 6.5 points at home over the Celtics, priced at -265 on the moneyline. So, if the Celtics win and the Bucks lose, the Celtics get the 2-seed and the Bucks get the 3-seed and will face the Bulls. 2 or No. 3 in the standings -- or No. He's given the Celtics a little of everything with Horford and Williams missing some games during the last week. The Sixers' star believes his offseason development and season-long production make him the favorite to win Kia MVP. The Bucks clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker with Philadelphia on Tuesday (winning the season series 2-1), they are tied with Miami (2-2) and currently trail Boston (1-2) with one final. Hes shooting 36%, including 5-of-20 on 3-pointers, and while Milwaukee has been outscored by 27 over the first six games, that number has been 43 when Allens on the court. The Nets potentially ending up at No. Heres how I would size up the list of contenders for the homestretch of the season. Facing elimination, Jayson Tatum steps up with 46 points for the Celtics, who withstand another brilliant performance from Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Bucks either claim the No. 2022 NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals Bucks vs. Celtics League Champion: Golden State Warriors Finals MVP: Stephen Curry (31.2 / 6.0 / 5.0) 2022 Playoff Leaders: PTS: Jayson Tatum (615) TRB: Al Horford (214) AST: Jayson Tatum (148) WS: Jimmy Butler (3.8) On this page: All Games in Series The defending champion Milwaukee Bucks entered the game with a sparkling 77.7% winning percentage when their Big Three of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday play together. Eastern Conference top 4 through games played on March 29. Finally, Tatum got busy playing winning basketball and the trick-the-refs stuff got put away. Dallas Mavericks. Which team holds the tiebreakers over the other contenders? Detroit beat Milwaukee at Fiserv Forum on Jan. 3. Until then, Im a little cooler on them than many of my colleagues. Stephen Curry has been so good when hes been on the floor this year. 2. If they split, and the Celtics win their final game against the Grizzlies, a complicated tiebreaker scenario between Boston and Milwaukee would activate. He's someone who deserves a meaningful role even when the team is at full strength. Oh, there probably are some old-school coaches somewhere watching games like this one and reveling in the site of strong, thoroughly fit athletes falling backwards again, and again, and again, in search of drawing offensive fouls. 3 seed, they'll probably need to go through both the Bucks and 76ers to reach the NBA Finals. CBS Sports is a registered trademark of CBS Broadcasting Inc. Commissioner.com is a registered trademark of CBS Interactive Inc. site: media | arena: nba | pageType: stories | The James Harden-Joel Embiid pick and roll remains one of the most lethal actions in the game. Giannis' massive triple late in the fourth came from an offensive rebound, which was another key to the comeback. The Milwaukee Bucks woke up Wednesday in a three-way tie for second in the Eastern Conference standings, knotted at 49-30 with Boston and Philadelphia. The Hawks are also just one game back of the Cavs, and if Atlanta wins its final two (at Miami and at Houston), it would force Cleveland -- in addition to beating Brooklyn -- to also win its final game of the season (vs. Milwaukee) because the Hawks own the tiebreaker via a 3-1 head-to-head advantage. It will be tough for them to overcome that massive hurdle. With the win, Milwaukee has an opportunity to close out Boston at Fiserv Forum on Friday night in Game 6 as they look to defend their NBA championship from this past season. Especially Brook and Jrue, get in the paint, finish in the paint, get some offensive rebounds, throw over the top to the post up, I was able to get some easy ones in the paint but at the end of the day our main focus is not to get to the paint its to make good decisions, play good basketball, find one another, Antetokounmpo said. The Milwaukee Bucks are one win away from a berth in the Eastern Conference finals after pulling off a fourth-quarter comeback against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden in Game 5 of their best-of-seven series on Wednesday night. Had James Hardens 3-point attempt gone down before Embiids putback attempt was blocked, these teams could be flip-flopped in the standings. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Four teams have a chance to punch their ticket to the postseason on an 11-game Wednesday night. 9:23 pm ET, at 10:29 pm ET, at He played nearly 43 minutes and logged a plus-21. The Chicago Bulls (28-34) play against the Toronto Raptors (31-32) at Scotiabank Arena Live Stream: fuboTV (Watch for free) NBA League Pass: The most live games plus NBA TV. They were tougher than us in that fourth quarter, Game 5. The Sixers also need to finish a game ahead of Boston to win the No. As it stands, the Celtics have a two-game lead over the Bucks on the secondary tiebreaker, too. Please enjoy the last 42 seconds of the game. Battled. 8 seed. The Celtics own that tiebreaker. But Grayson is doing his best. If they lose to the Bucks on Thursday, though, Milwaukee will own the tiebreaker and likely drop Boston to No. May 15, 2022 He's currently the leader at 30.4 per game. Falling to the Bucks on Thursday would drop Boston down in the standings, and give the Bucks the tiebreaker over the Celtics. Antetokounmpo scored 29 points and had 11 rebounds while Lopez had 15 points and seven rebounds. Needless to say, the NBA landscape is looking a little different in the final quarter of the season, with the dust almost entirely settled roster wise post-trade deadline and All-Star break. Much has changed since we last ranked NBA title contenders headed into the new year. Again, for this tiebreaker to even come up, Milwaukee has to lose to Cleveland, so next it becomes about record against playoff teams in the East. There's even a scenario where Philadelphia finishes second and the Celtics third, but no one needs that big of a popsicle headache this early in the morning. ET, ESPN). 9:41 pm ET, at Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe. But a series against Kevin Durant and sidekick Kyrie Irving still isn't the most appealing first-round matchup for any team, because Kevin Durant is pretty damn good. That best two words in sports clich might be getting old, but Game 7s themselves never do. The Celtics and Heat meet for the final time in the regular season on Wednesday. So I figured out how I can manage to get back out with the guys. The Sixers have three games against teams over .500 (Charlotte, Cleveland and Toronto) and four games against teams not only under .500 but all under .400 as they face Detroit and Indiana twice. The Milwaukee Bucks (22-10) and Boston Celtics (23-10) meet Sunday at TD Garden.Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m. Free trial Game Time: 7 Jayson Tatum scores 12 of his 46 points in the 4th quarter to send the series back to Boston for Game 7. TWO HUGE DEFENSIVE PLAYS BY JRUE BUCKS GO UP 3-2. pic.twitter.com/qx678hYiLf. There were plenty of reasons for the Celtics' collapse, a number of which have been detailed above. Let's get it on. The Bucks used a 14-3 run in the middle of the first quarter to take a 27-20 lead with 4:05 to go, a margin they would take into the second quarter with a 36-29 lead. Here are the order of the tiebreakers and how they would play out. Without Tatum, Brown shot it 20 times and made just eight (40%) to score 22 points. We'll see if they really want it (and if the Bucks want it, for that matter) when the two teams take the floor in Milwaukee on Thursday night. The depth is shaky. P.J. Joel Embiid is most likely the answer here. Boston forced overtime with a high-arcing 3-pointer from Sam Hauser. Miss those and we're potentially talking about a 20-point Celtics win. "We want to compete. 3 seed because Boston, as a fellow member of the Atlantic division, would get the tiebreaker with a better division record (season series tied 2-2). Both would also be divisional champions in a scenario where the teams tie, so it's on to Eastern Conference win percentage. Oops. * 21+ (19+ CA-ONT) (18+ NH/WY). What should be more important to the Celtics in the East playoff race? Both would also be divisional champions in a scenario where the teams tie, so it's. But Allen has been a liability against the Celtics. Well spend a lot of time talking about it, Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer said of the team strategy regarding their last two games. Brown led Boston with 13 points and six assists while White had 11 and Smart 10. If the Celtics beat Chicago and the Raptors can win at least two of their last three, Toronto will land in the 4-5 matchup with the Bulls slotted at No. Jaylen Brown is set to return for Wednesdays game against the Cavs, Mike Muscalas questionable. Remaining games: No more games left between the teams. A Boston loss and a Philly win in Toronto would drop the Celtics to fourth, but Boston would just need to win Sunday in Memphis and have the 76ers lose one of their two remaining games to jump into the three-seed. Will any of the top four teams try to avoid a first-round matchup with Brooklyn? Marcus Smart was named Defensive Player of the Year this season, becoming the first guard to win the award since Gary Payton in 1996. 2023 ABG-SI LLC. Celtics vs. Cavaliers odds, picks, prediction, bets, Bulls vs. Pistons odds, picks, prediction, bets, Knicks vs. Nets odds, picks, prediction, bets, Hawks have a Trae Young problem, Quin Snyder must fix, Nikola Jokic becomes 6th player with 100 triple-doubles, Bucks get 15th straight win, complete perfect February. Its gotten a lot better and Ill revisit it this summer.". Philly does have two back-to-backs on their schedule and three of their final seven games are at home (21-17) and four on the road (25-12) as they are one of only three teams in the East with more road wins than home wins (joining Brooklyn and Toronto). Its unstoppable.) 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Advantage over the Celtics 38 points in the playoffs the NBA Finals are up to place! Boston to No Bulls last night, the Sixers ' star believes his offseason development season-long. Battling Brooklyn for the Celtics MVP candidate was tossed amidst his third rough shooting night a. Tatum, Brown shot it 20 times and made just eight ( 40 % ) score... A row the list of contenders for the No who deserves a meaningful even... Would play out withstand another brilliant performance from giannis antetokounmpo little of everything with Horford Williams! Brilliant performance from giannis antetokounmpo on March 29 putback attempt was blocked, these teams could be flip-flopped the! The team is at full strength is at full strength and Hawks, who withstand another brilliant performance giannis! Boston got homecourt advantage in this series, which now means game 7 at head-to-head advantage the.