With the NBA trade deadline approaching and Anfernee Simons playing on an expiring contract, his name has been suggested for a potential deal in the coming days. Simons provided reasons why the Celtics should retain their best bench scorer with an impressive display Sunday afternoon.
Simons scored 11 points in the opening period to dig the Celtics out of a 12-point deficit, then spent the rest of the day hitting timely buckets as Boston ended a four-game homestand with a 107-79 victory over the struggling Milwaukee Bucks.
It was the NBA’s first Pioneers Day at TD Garden, honoring the 75th anniversary of the first three Black players to play in the NBA — Earl Lloyd, Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, and the Celtics’ Chuck Cooper. The Garden was filled with historical figures, such as the children of Bill Russell, KC Jones, Sam Jones, and Red Auerbach; while Celtics legend Tom “Satch” Sanders was seated just feet from the bench.
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What they witnessed from this surprising Celtics team was a dominant effort after falling behind, 12-0. Simons scored 27 points on 10-for-18 shooting, while Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 30 points and 13 rebounds coming back from a one-game absence with injury. Boston took its first lead on a Payton Pritchard 3-pointer 24 seconds into the second period and never trailed again.
Milwaukee, a franchise in limbo because of the uncertain status of superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, made its first five shots and then 24 of the next 77, shooting 35.4 percent. Simons scored 5 points in an 11-2 Celtics run that extended their lead to 88-63 with nine minutes left.
For Simons, it was his ninth game of 20 or more points this season and fourth game with six or more 3-pointers. He has developed into the bench spark plug the Celtics envisioned when they acquired him from the Trail Blazers for Jrue Holiday.
With an expiring contract at $27 million, Simons has long been rumored to be traded. But he’s emerged as a Sixth Man of the Year candidate, averaging 14.2 points and shooting 39.5 percent from the 3-point line.
“Just kind of getting comfortable in understanding what needs to be done on a night-to-night basis,” he said. “Living with the results of whatever that game tells me to do. Whether it looks like I’m scoring 20 points or 8 points. It’s cool to go out there and see what the game needs and impact winning in that way.”
Brown returned from a game off to rest nagging injuries and an 8-point first half to pour in 22 second-half points in just 12 minutes. Celtics history is a subject Brown has tried to master over his 10 years in the organization. After the game, he took photos with the families of Cooper, Lloyd and Clifton, who were honored at halftime.
The families of both Jones and Russell also greeted Brown outside the locker room following the game.
“I think it was awesome,” Brown said of Pioneers Day. “It’s pretty good to be able to pay homage to the people of the past from a person who also loves to pay my respects. I thought the NBA did a good job of honoring some of those guys from the past.”
Former Celtics coach Doc Rivers is in the middle of the Bucks’ decline as the franchise determines whether to trade Antetokounmpo, their generational superstar. Milwaukee dropped to 3-14 in games without Antetokounmpo, who has missed the past three games with his second calf strain in two months.
The Bucks appeared ready to challenge the Celtics in front of a nationally televised audience, but cooled off considerably.
“We missed point plank layups, and when we sprayed it out we missed threes,” Rivers said. “So I have to look at it, but I thought that we had the right plan to get the right stuff. But when you’re struggling and you start missing shots, it becomes a snowball, and that’s what I felt tonight. I thought right before halftime you could see our spirit dropping a little bit, because the way we were playing. Then I thought we came out in the beginning of the third and tried to get it going, and I think we missed three, four, five point-blank threes in a row. And I thought that was the killer.”
Derrick White added 17 points and was plus-27 in his 32 minutes while Jordan Walsh provided a spark with five offensive rebounds as the Celtics began wearing down the Bucks in the second half.
“We we’re a little bit more physical,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “But in every quarter you can go back and look at five shots they missed that if they make, this could be a different game. But I thought the physicality of how we played affected them a little bit.”
Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.