Point guard Kyrie Irving added a double-double of 26 points, 11 assists and 7 rebounds that put him at the forefront of the Boston Celtics’ balanced attack in a 90-112 away win over the Milwaukee Bucks in the first match of the semifinal elimination of the Eastern Conference of the playoffs of the NBA.
The victory allows the Celtics to go 1-0 up in the series that they are going to play the best of seven and take away the field advantage that was held by the Bucks after having concluded the regular season with the best record in the league.
The second game of the series will be played on the same stage at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee next Tuesday.
Irving led the best team game for the Celtics, who had five players with double-digit numbers and finished the game with 54 (47-87) percent shooting from the field, including 42 (13- 31) of triples.
Likewise, they dominated the inside game with 51 rebounds by 44 from some Bucks who never could with the work of the Dominican center Al Horford, decisive at the end of the game with a double-double of 20 points, 11 rebounds -10 defensive-, and three blocks .
Horford in the 32 minutes he played he scored 8 of 16 shots from the field, including 3 of 5 triples, and 1 of 2 from the person line.
And the Dominican international also distributed three assists, recovered a ball, lost none and only committed two fouls.
Guard Jaylen Brown also emerged as the winning factor, scoring 19 points, with three triples, grabbing four rebounds and making great defense.
But the support of the bench was also another of the winning factors for the Celtics, with forward Gordon Hayward leading and sixth player who contributed 13 points, five assists and four rebounds.
Meanwhile, point guard Terry Rozier gave the team quality minutes at halftime for Irving after scoring 11 points, nine rebounds and three assists.
“We’ve played great team basketball, never losing focus on what we had to do on the field,” said Celtics coach Brad Stevens. “The tie has only just begun, but doing so with a victory is very important for team morale, as well as regaining the advantage of the field.”
This time, the star power forward of the Bucks, the Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo, could not be a winning factor by contributing 22 points after scoring 7 of 21 shots from the field and did not have prominence in the interior game by remaining with just seven rebounds and put a plug.
Antetokounmpo made his first shot to the basket at the beginning of the second period, without first being able to overcome the great double-team defense presented by the Celtics.
Forward Khris Middleton, with 16 points, was the second highest scorer for the Bucks who had only 3 players with 2-digit numbers, including Montenegrin Spanish power forward Nikola Mirotic who contributed 13 points as a reserve.
Mirotic, who played 21 minutes, was the Bucks’ most consistent and effective player, scoring 5 of 9 shots from the field, including 3 of 4 3-pointers, which in the first half were the ones that kept the team in the game when it ended with barely two points down on the scoreboard (50-52).
The former Real Madrid player also captured 4 rebounds – 3 defensive – and committed a personal foul.
The game was completely broken in the third period with the Celtics dominating in all facets of the game, while the Bucks, depending exclusively on the inspiration of Antetokounmpo, saw that their star did not have the best and that was the end of the game for them. .
The Celtics, who had swept the series against the Indiana Pacers in the first round, confirmed that they are in their best game so far this season.
The Celtics players wore a black armband with the number 17 in memory of legendary Hall of Famer John Havlicek, who died last Thursday at the age of 79 and had won eight league titles with the team. from Boston after having been in the franchise for 16 seasons. .EFE