An offensive rebound and putback layup by Bobby Portis off a missed free throw late in the game on Wednesday night, led the Milwaukee Bucks back from a 14 point fourth quarter deficit for a 110-107 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 5 of an Eastern Conference Playoff Semifinal series at TD Garden. Milwaukee now leads the best of seven 3-2 with Game 6 back in Wisconsin.
Milwaukee led most of the first quarter, as Boston only had a one point lead for 13 seconds on a Jayson Tatum jumper just over halfway through the opening 12 minutes, and the Bucks held a 28-26 advantage after one. It was mostly all Celtics in the second, as an 11-0 run over a span of 3:18 gave them a 13 point lead 51-38 with 3:47 left capped off by a Marcus Smart steal and then an alley-oop pass from Jaylen Brown to Tatum for a dunk. Giannis Antetokounmpo though kept the guests in the game with 19 first half points, slicing the deficit to 54-47 at the break.
Milwaukee would cut it to one 4:22 into the third quarter on a jumper by Brook Lopez, before a three-pointer from Smart and a layup by Daniel Theis off a feed from Brown pushed it to 71-63 Boston with 4:07 left in the period. After the Bucks would get within three points, Brown would catch fire. He scored 10 of the Celtics final 15 points of the quarter, 16 in all in the third including a pair of three-pointers late and the hosts had an 86-77 lead headed to the fourth. It looked as though Boston may pull away building their biggest lead of the night 93-79 on a Payton Pritchard jumper with 10:16 to play. Milwaukee kept battling, and a Jrue Holiday jumper cut it to 101-99 with 4:09 remaining. The C’s scored four straight points to build it back to six on a Tatum jumper and a huge putback dunk by Al Hordord off a missed shot. The Bucks finally tied it when Holiday knocked in a three-pointer with 42.4 seconds left. Tatum regained the lead for Boston with two free throws 11 seconds later, and then Antetokounmpo was fouled and headed to the line with 14.2 seconds showing on the clock. Antetokounmpo made the first, and then missed the second but Portis was in the right spot to grab the rebound and put it back in for a 108-107 Milwaukee lead. Smart found a seam on the other end and tried to go to the basket to regain the lead, but was blocked by Holiday and Holiday would throw it off Smart and out of bounds. Pat Connaughton made two free throws for a three point advantage, and Holiday who was huge late made another big play when he stripped Smart of the ball at midcourt to run out of the clock to end it.
Tatum would lead Boston in the loss with 34 points, six rebounds, four assists, one steal, and one blocked shot. Brown would finish with 26 points, eight rebounds, and six assists. Smart chipped in 15 points, while Theis played solid off the bench with 11 points. Horford, who had a playoff high 30 points in the Game 4 Boston win, was held to eight points on the night with eight rebounds, six assists, three steals, and a block. Antetokounmpo was huge once again leading all scorers in the Milwaukee win with 40 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, and one block. Antetokounmpo is averaging 34 points and 12.6 rebounds per game in the series. Holiday, who made two or three huge plays to lead the comeback in the fourth quarter, had 24 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists. The Celtics head to Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on the brink of elimination for Game 6 on Friday with the time to be determined.
