BOSTON – Being home has been a good thing for the Boston Celtics lately, and Thursday night – through the first half at least – proved to be no exception.
The Celtics wasted no time establishing control of the game and went into the half leading the Milwaukee Bucks 62-52.
Milwaukee Bucks coach Jason Kidd said prior to the game how impressed he has been with Jae Crowder this season.
Crowder validated the praise afterwards with a dominant first quarter of play. He led all scorers with 14 points on 6-for-7 shooting along with a couple of rebounds.
And when Crowder wasn’t controlling the action, Amir Johnson was making a huge impact both scoring the ball as well as rebounding. At the half, he had a near double-double with 13 points and eight rebounds in just 17 minutes.
The Celtics pulled ahead by as many as 17 points in the second quarter, but the Bucks mounted a 9-2 run to cut Boston’s cushion to 48-38.
Brad Stevens had seen enough of his team’s lead wiped out, calling a time-out with 6:11 to play in the half to hopefully slow down Milwaukee’s mounting momentum.
It didn’t work.
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The Bucks continued to surge back into the game, cutting Boston’s lead to as little as five points (50-45) following a free throw by Miles Plumlee with 3:58 to play in the half.
However, Boston buckled down a bit defensively and got a few timely shots to go into the half with a double digit lead.
Here are three pointers from the first half.
DISAPPEARING 3-BALL
The Celtics have had their share of struggles this season shooting 3s, but Thursday was a rough go at it even for them. Boston missed all nine of its 3-pointers. But to their credit, the Bucks weren’t much better with misses in five of their six 3-point attempts.
CASHING THE BONUS
Boston was in the bonus for the final 8:08 of the second quarter, which led to them attempting half of their free throws for the first half, in that final 8:08. At the half, Boston was 12-for-14 from the line which included a 7-for-8 performance in the second quarter.
HOLD THE MAYO
O.J. Mayo has been playing well of late for the Milwaukee Bucks. You would not have known that by the way he struggled in the first half on Thursday. He was scoreless in eight minutes of court time, missing both of his field goal attempts while committing three personal fouls.