3 seed would be pretty important to each of these teams, as it would mean landing on the opposite side of the bracket from Phoenix, which would delay a potential matchup with the No. Boston forced overtime with a high-arcing 3-pointer from Sam Hauser. Rather, it was that they resorted to the methodical and predictable late-game offense that plagued them early in the season. 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. . Next, a pass from Smart for a turnaround jumper, followed a couple possessions later by another 3-pointer over Milwaukees Pat Connaughton. 40-17, 24-5 home. Holiday had seven points in that stretch, which pushed a 38-37 Bucks lead to 51-40 with 5:03 left in the half. what a time for them to find their shooting stroke, On a mission. ET, ESPN), Philadelphia 76ers (46-29), 1.5 games back. The Bucks outscored the Celtics 58-34 in the paint. Beautiful.. The G League Ignite guard has been toward the top of several draft boards ahead of the 2023 Draft. I agree to receive the "CBS Sports HQ Newsletter" and marketing communications, updates, special offers (including partner offers), and other information from CBS Sports and the Paramount family of companies. The James Harden-Joel Embiid pick and roll remains one of the most lethal actions in the game. 2 seed, and let the chips fall where they may in the play-in tournament. That means Embiid has to come down a good chunk. The Nuggets have a comfortable lead atop the Western Conference and appear poised to break through with their two-man core of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. All rights reserved. Milwaukee Bucks vs. Play-In No. He hasn't always been consistent on the offensive end, but he is a complete game-changer on defense, as he reminded everyone on Wednesday. 8 seed. The season series also is tied, and the third and final meeting between these teams isn't until March 30 in Milwaukee. East teams jockeying for position, matchups. 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). The Celtics have a somewhat built-in excuse to punt the game, given it's the second leg of a back-to-back. Horford will almost certainly get the night off, leaving Boston without one of its best defenders against Giannis Antetokounmpo. 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. White recently won the Eastern Conference Player of the Week award, and he kept his hot streak going against the Bucks. 5 seed. 4 if the Sixers win out. Despite a recent surge from Milwaukee and the continued steady play of theNuggetsout West, its Cleveland who is firmly second in net rating behind only theCeltics. The Celtics 18-point lead had shrunk to six when Tatum subbed in with 9:37 left. Im sure Grayson could be better, but as a group, its really on all of us to be better coming out of the third quarter.. Celtics vs. 4 seed, they would avoid the Nets in the opening round, but they would only guarantee themselves home-court advantage for the opening round. After scoring 12 points in 16 minutes during his C's debut on Fridayand then 10 points versus the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday, the veteran forward racked up 10 points over the first five minutes of Tuesday's matchup. With 14.2 seconds remaining, Giannis went to the line with the Bucks trailing by two. Still, the Sixers havent shown they can go to the heights the Bucks and Celtics have. This team has been through too many battles for me to put them any lower on this list. That would set up the possibility of a C's-Bulls first-round matchup if Boston loses to Milwaukee on Thursday. 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. 4 Sixers by one game in the loss column. 3 Celtics and No. It was widely viewed that Milwaukee was avoiding a #2 vs. #7 matchup with the Brooklyn Nets who Boston would later sweep anyway. While Dallas entered Tuesday a firm plus in their minutes, the defense has predictably not been great when the two share the floor. pic.twitter.com/GImsaKV1bP, bucks 108-107 with 11.4. celtics taking it out at half court, giannis missed it badly but portis comes up with it and scores to give the bucks the lead. However, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis are all listed as doubtful Sunday. Griffin has been so good from 3-point range recently that the Bucks had to respect him on the perimeter, and he used that to his advantage on this drive to the hoop during the first quarter. Celtics rout Bucks to close out epic series Jayson Tatum puts up 23 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists while Grant Williams chips in a career-high 27 points (7 3PM) to pace Game 7 victory. But the entertainment value of that is negligible, and the threat of injury to talented thoroughbred-like players is borderline negligent. Keeps the Bucks out of first as well. Its very difficult to separate them from the top team on this list, but . Which team holds the tiebreakers over the other contenders? Were being sarcastic, of course. Sometimes you miss shots, but that wasn't the issue for Boston. The Sixers have to finish a game ahead of the Bucks because Milwaukee owns the tiebreaker via its 2-1 head-to-head advantage over the Sixers. Holiday and Antetokounmpo had a dozen points each while Lopez and Portis had 11 each. A team that finishes the regular season in either ninth or 10th place can do no better than the No. Grant Williams thought he got the Greek Freak at 10:16 of the fourth, only to have the Bucks challenge and win. The Bulls currently sit in the six-seed, and we just saw what the Celtics can do to that team. But Antetokounmpo seemed a little lonely and overworked in Game 6. 9:30 pm ET, at Way to find a way to win Celtics. On the last back-to-back the Bucks sat four starters in a lopsided loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on April 1 and the Pistons have won three of their last four behind No. Milwaukee has seven games remaining in the regular season with three coming at home (26-12) and four on the road (21-16); they also have two back-to-backs, but they are both split with one game at home and the other on the road. 2 seed. It could be a huge matchup. MILWAUKEE Five takeaways from the Boston Celtics 108-95 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 6 Friday at Fiserv Forum that evened their Eastern Conference semifinal series, 3-3, and force Game 7 on Sunday afternoon in Boston (3:30 ET, ABC). On Tuesday, the Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Philadelphia 76ers behind Giannis Antetokounmpos 40 points and game-sealing block on Joel Embiid in the closing seconds. Instead, the Bucks were able to hang around. 6. Smart and Theis combined for 29 of the Celtics 38 points in the quarter. Muscala also put the ball on the floor and threw down a dunk early in the third quarter. This game is on March 29 in Philly. 9:16 am ET. That was in the back of our minds, Game 5, Tatum said after scoring 46 points with nine rebounds and four assists. Those three teams are lined up to be the Nos. A daily roundup of Boston Celtics news from Celtics Blog, By submitting your email, you agree to our, Jayson Tatum ejected in ugly Celtics loss to Knicks: I just told him this was probably the best officiated game Ive been a part of. Teams are permitted to carry only two timeouts into the final three minutes, and the Bucks coach is almost comically dedicated to not having any stripped away. In the West, it's between Utah and Denver. Early in the frame, as the Celtics were threatening to pull away, the Bucks knocked down three 3-pointers in a two-minute span to stay attached. Celtics:at Chicago, at Milwaukee, at Memphis, Bucks:vs. Celtics, at Detroit, at Cleveland, Sixers:at Toronto, vs. Indiana, vs. Detroit. But it all goes back to whether or not teams want the two-seed. Yet Budenholzer stopped the break, then wound up out of the timeout with his star taking a rare and unsuccessful corner 3-pointer. MIKE MUSCALA THROWS IT DOWN (and gets his first technical ever?) pic.twitter.com/wKXHfm30tm. The Celtics (50-31) have one game left in Memphis on Sunday while the Bucks headed right to the airport to play Detroit on Friday and then wrap the regular season in Cleveland on Sunday for a matinee. ET on Thursday, April 7. 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. The 13-time All-Star, who was dealt to Phoenix on Feb. 9, has not played in a game since Jan. 8 when he was with the Nets. Please enter valid email address to continue. wow, horford with a massive put back slam to push the celtics' lead to six. After Tuesday night's results, the Celtics find themselves in a three-way tie for the No. If the Bucks win against Cleveland (tipoff is at 3:30 p.m.), they finish second in the East. The Celtics split their season with the Sixers (2-2) as the two also remain in contention for the Atlantic Division title with Boston holding a slim 0.5 game edge at this point. The Bucks had only Jrue Holiday, with 17 points on 17 shots, and Pat Connaughton (14), helping Antetokounmpo with the scoring. Their remaining opponents have a combined win percentage of .509, with five of their final six games coming against opponents over .500, with the only exception coming in the regular-season finale against Orlando. Tuckers value goes up in the postseason, and the role players have been generally solid here. 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 | On the court against the Celtics, the Bucks were able to take advantage of the schedule with the victory, as the Celtics elected to sit all-star forward Jayson Tatum (right knee) and center Al Horford (back) after each played about 30 minutes on Wednesday night in Chicago. Boston guard Jaylen Brown had scored at least 25 points in 10 straight games, the longest active streak in the NBA. Round 2. In some cases, the next tiebreaker would be division winning percentage, but that only applies if the teams are in the same division, so the Bucks' 11-3 advantage over the 9-7 Celtics doesn't . White is enjoying the best stretch of his Celtics career with Smart sidelined due to injury. 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. 9:41 pm ET, at Its unstoppable.) 2 BOSTON CELTICS (51-31, 4-0) vs. No. The Bucks and Sixers are 1-1 in their season series, making the third and final game in the series the tie breaker. 10:09 pm ET, at After the defending champs dispatched the Chicago Bulls last night, the Eastern Conference Semifinals is set between Milwaukee and Boston. He wanted a foul on the play and picked up the first technical foul of his NBA career. Add to that the tendency for coaches to use their challenges on such plays and we end up with players crashing to the floor and games grinding to a halt to see if somebody truly went statue in time to thwart a highlight or poster play. 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. 10:29 pm ET, at As for the Sixers the only shot they have at the No. Falling to fourth would likely set up a first-round meeting with the Toronto Raptors, a team that is rolling right now. He's also hitting 48.8 percent from beyond the arc during that span. Individually, there are incredibly close races for Kia Most Valuable Player, Kia Rookie of the Year and the league scoring title that are being tracked on a daily basis. 2 and No. Tatum and Brown will likely see some action, but probably not the big workload they got in Wednesday night's blowout. Daniel Theis added 22 points for Boston. Since the Jazz own the tiebreaker, one more win or one more Denver loss would seal the No. The Bucks have struggled in the third quarter all year long and Thursday was no different, but they rallied late to take a 102-97 lead into the fourth quarter. The two-seed is there for the Celtics -- if they want it. For Denver to pass the Jazz, it needs to win its final game (vs. Lakers ) and have the Jazz lose their final two (vs. Phoenix and at Portland). I felt like we were able to make some shots tough," Budenholzer said of his team's defensive effort in the final minutes. 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. For the first time in this seasons rankings, the Bucks top this list. 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. pic.twitter.com/WJPCr35AEx, The end of game reaction from the @DeerDistrict!! I spoke to a specialist; youre going to have pain playing with it no matter what," Hill said. He also had 11 assists and 10 rebounds. In terms of tiebreakers, the Heat will lose their season series to Boston regardless of Wednesdays outcome, but the Heat are tied 2-2 with both Philadelphia and Milwaukee. The Bucks clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker with Philadelphia on Tuesday winning the season series 2-1 they are tied with Miami 2. Eastern Conference Player of the Week award, and the role players have generally! Falling to fourth would likely set up the first time in this seasons rankings, the active... 4 Sixers by one game in the East Smart sidelined due to.. James Harden-Joel Embiid pick and roll remains one of its best defenders against Antetokounmpo! The G League Ignite guard has been through too many battles for me to put them lower. At 10:16 of the 2023 draft is negligible, and the threat injury! 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