Boston 105, Milwaukee 102 (Overtime)

Last season, we lose this game.

[recap] [box score]

Second night of a back-to-back; a stubborn, hard-nosed defensive opponent that won't give up; an offense that wasn't clicking all evening; some questionable calls down the stretch -- all of these factors would have caused Boston to pack it in for the night. But this Celtic team is supposed to be different than the one that held back during the last regular season and waited for the playoffs to give a full effort. And so, down six with three minutes to go, a Glen Davis offensive rebound led to a three-pointer from Ray Allen. A Kevin Garnett dunk over Andrew Bogut was punctuated by a forearm to the big Aussie's chest, resulting not just in a double technical foul, but a reinvigorated crowd and team. A Paul Pierce three-point play gave Boston the lead, and another three-point play by Garnett got it back after a Milwaukee basket. A Rajon Rondo steal led to another Pierce layup, and a Glen Davis steal on the subsequent Buck possession resulted in a pair of made free throws. In just 100 seconds, Boston had gone from down six to up six, completely turning the evening around in just a few possessions.

They didn't close the game smoothly, coughing up that six-point lead in regulation thanks to a turnover, a missed free throw, and a blown defensive possession. But they regrouped in overtime and came away with the victory. If you were looking for proof that this year's regular season would be different than the last, this was a good first step.

Bullets:

• Boston's defensive effort was strong throughout most of the evening. But they got killed on the offensive glass, giving up 13 offensive rebounds, including six by Bogut. Many of the offensive boards were tap-ins or tap-backs, the latter perhaps a reflection of Bogut's size relative to Jermaine O'Neal and Glen Davis. The team didn't do a bad job on the boards, especially when you consider that Shaq was out, but this game would have been in the bag had Milwaukee not had so many second chances.
• The offense looked stagnant for most of the evening. Gone was the pace and flow from the night before against the Pistons. Give the Bucks credit; they're a strong defensive team. But the Cs allowed themselves to be slowed down. They lacked purpose, even in the way they ran upcourt.
• WIth some free throws in overtime, Pierce passed 20,000 points for his career -- every minute of which has been spent in Celtic green.
• Rondo had 15 assists, giving him the most in NBA history through five games. (He also has the record through four games). He also had six turnovers, though a big chunk of those came early in the game. Most importantly, he showed that he can score when the situation warrants it, with 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting. The baskets came at particularly opportune times, too. Twice in the fourth quarter, with Milwaukee looking like it might pull away, Rondo came up with a deuce to keep his team within striking distance.
• Jermaine blocked three shots, all in the first half (I think).
• Doc played Davis down the stretch alongside KG (until Davis fouled out).
• The bench (save Davis) was pretty bad tonight, for the second straight game.
• Semih Erden was the only Celtics big I saw boxing out consistently.
• In terms of end of quarter plays, Pierce ran a nice pick-and-pop with Nate Robinson that resulted in a corner three for Allen. The nice thing about the play is that the team initiated it with enough time to go to the second or third option off the play, a big improvement over last year. Boston also had the ball at the end of the third quarter, but some good full-court pressure from Milwaukee prevented them from getting a good look.
• Bogut had a strong game for Milwaukee, but really seemed to be coddling his injured right arm.

The Celtics are back on TV Friday night against the Bulls.

The Next Lamb: The Milwaukee Bucks

Game 5: Milwaukee (1-3) at Boston (3-1)

Date: Wednesday, November 3

Time: 8 p.m. (Eastern)

TV: ESPN

I haven't had much of an opportunity to watch the Bucks this year. As I'm writing this, I'm keeping an eye on a replay of their 90-76 home loss to Portland last night. As I type this sentence, in fact, they're up 23-13, and they look good on both ends of the floor. The box score says they scored 27 points in the first period, which means they got just 49 the rest of the way. I have no idea what happened after such a promising start.

My only other look at Milwaukee this season was a few minutes of their 96-85 loss to Minnesota. I tuned in towards the end of that one, and most of what I saw was Brandon Jennings forcing the action and turning the ball over. That was the tail end of a nice in which the Bucks hit just over a third of their shots, however, so perhaps frustration was settling in.

Jennings, the second-year point guard, is an interesting player for me. I saw him at Summer League before his rookie season and was pretty unimpressed. He got everybody's attention by scoring 55 points on the Warriors early last year, and I personally think that one game colored everyone's opinion of him. Perhaps it's the stubborn Jonny Flynn fan in me; Jennings was a Rookie of the Year candidate, Flynn was widely panned as one of the worst starting point guards in the league. But statistically the players were pretty similar. (I'll have more on this once Flynn gets back and I write my defense of him.)

Anyway, Jennings vs. Rajon Rondo is a matchup of the only two players who have recorded triple-doubles this season (Jennings dropped 20/10/10 on Charlotte last week). Boston has the clear advantage in that matchup. A big key will be limiting Jennings' options; he's not the most patient point guard, and he'll force the action if he can't get what he's looking for right away.

Milwaukee's other big name is center Andrew Bogut. The big Aussie isn't 100% after a nasty arm injury suffered at the end of last season, but he's the first good post player the Celtics have faced this season. I don't know if Shaq is playing tonight, but Bogut isn't overly physical, so hopefully Jermaine O'Neal will be able to handle him. He's got a nice little lefty hook that he loves to use, and word is that his shooting stroke -- not great to begin with -- isn't what it was before the injury. Bogut is one of the best shotblockers in the NBA, so Boston will need to be wary of his presence on drives to the hoop. On the flip side, whoever Bogut is guarding should be open for dishoffs and offensive rebounds.

The Bucks have a bunch of wing players who do a variety of things well. John Salmons is good scorer, Carlos Delfino is having a great year shooting the three, and newly-acquired Corey Maggette excels at getting to the foul line (where he converts at a terrific rate). Reserve power forward Ersan Ilyasova is a good three-point shooter, and the starter at the four, Drew Gooden, gave KG a lot of trouble when he was with Cleveland a few years ago.

Milwaukee was tabbed by most as an up-and-coming team in the East after they took the Hawks to seven games last season (without Bogut). They haven't come together yet this year, but they have been playing very good defense. Boston pushed the pace against Detroit last night and would do well to use a similar strategy against the Bucks. Doing so would keep Milwaukee from setting its defense and force the excitable Jennings into turnovers.

Boston 102, Milwaukee 97 (OT)

Hey, a win's a win. So what if we blew a 12-point fourth-quarter lead? So what if the Bucks didn't have Michael Redd and Charlie Villanueva?

[recap] [box score]

I'm a couple days late with this post, mainly because this wasn't a very important game. As I've said before, the success of our season will not be measured by how well we do against Milwaukee. We'll be measured by how well we do against the Clevelands and Torontos and Detroits, and so far, we've passed all those tests.

In fact, the big story from Saturday is that a late skirmish that saw Bucks center Andrew Bogut head to the showers with his second technical has also gotten Kevin Garnett suspended for Tuesday night's game vs. the Knicks (7:30 pm Eastern).

This is a good time to point out that this sort of situation is precisely why I am always critical of Doc when he leaves KG in too long at the end of games that are well in hand. Because of his competitiveness and intensity, Garnett is susceptible to incidents like this one. That's not to say Garnett should not have been on the floor Saturday night against Milwaukee when this happened; he should have been, as the game was close. But one day, he's going to do this at the end of a game that is effectively over, and he's going to be hit with a suspension that could be easily avoided.

Now, our next opponent, New York.

The Knicks have been one of the surprise teams of the young season, as new head coach Mike D'Antoni has led them to a 6-4 record. Like all D'Antoni teams, they like to go up and down, and so it's a tough game in which to be shorthanded. Leon Powe and Glen Davis are going to need to come up big, particularly defensively and on the boards. We're also going to need to find a third scorer somewhere.

We played the Knicks six times last year; twice in the preseason, which I mention only because after we blew them out in the first one, the second one got exceedingly chippy after a very hard foul by Jamal Crawford on Ray Allen.

We got our revenge in the first meeting of the regular season, a 104-59 -- yes, you read that right -- win which provided one of my favorite moments of the season: a fan taking off his Knicks jersey and casting it away during a timeout while the Boston crowd went wild.

The next matchup came on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a game I distinctly remember watching in the middle of the day because I was home from work for the holiday. We won 109-93, and the game was memorable for two reasons: Crawford and Paul Pierce got ejected in the third quarter for yapping at each other, and Kendrick Perkins played completely out of his mind.

Perk had 15 of our first 17 (he also assisted on the other bucket), on an array of jumpers and layups and even free throws. He finished with 24 points. We could use that sort of scoring Tuesday night.