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<\/a><\/p>\nMyles Turner Getty Images<\/p>\n
Celtics Reserves
Payton Pritchard
Hugo Gonzalez
Luka Garza
Amare Williams
Jordan Walsh
Baylor Scheierman
Max Shulga
John Tonje
Charles Bassey (10-Day)
2-Way Players
Ron Harper, Jr<\/p>\n
Injuries\/Out
Nikola Vucevic (finger) out<\/p>\n
Bucks Reserves
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
Ousmane Dieng
AJ Green
Gary Harris
Andre Jackson, Jr
Pete Nance
Taurean Prince<\/p>\n
Two-Way Players
Alex Antetokounmpo
Cormac Ryan
Injuries\/Out
Giannis Antetokounmpo (knee) out
Thanasis Antetokounmpo (calf) questionable
Bobby Portis, Jr (wrist) out
Kevin Porter, Jr (knee) out
Gary Trent, Jr (hip) questionable
Ryan Rollins (hip) probable
Jericho Sims (patella) probable
Head Coach
Doc Rivers<\/p>\n
Key Matchups
Derrick White vs Ryan Rollins
Rollins is averaging 17.1 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game. He is shooting 47% from the field and 40.7% from beyond the arc. In 3 games against the Celtics this season, he averaged 13.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.7 steals while shooting 43.2% from the field and 46.2% from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n
Sam Hauser vs Kyle Kuzma
Kuzma is averaging 13.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game. He is shooting 49.1% from the field and 34.2% from beyond the arc. In 2 games against the Celtics this season, he averaged 23.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 1 assist while shooting 60% from the field and 50% from beyond the arc. The Celtics have to do a better job of defending him in this one.<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention
Neemias Queta vs Myles Turner
Turner is averaging 11.9 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game. He is shooting 43.9% from the field and 38.7% from beyond the arc. In 3 games against the Celtics this season, he averaged 5.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1 block per game while shooting 20% from the field and 14.3% from beyond the arc. Hopefully he will struggle in this game once again but the Celtics can\u2019t depend on it and need to defend him both in the paint and on the perimeter.
Keys to the Game
Defense – Defense is always the biggest key to winning. Defense really does win championships. The Celtics are 4th with a defensive rating of 111.8 The Bucks are 26th with a defensive rating of 117.9. The Celtics must work harder on defense in this one and keep their focus on the defensive end so as not to allow any easy baskets for the Bucks. They especially need to defend the perimeter as the Bucks are 2nd in the league shooting 38.6% from beyond the arc as a team and they are 4th, making 14.9 threes a game right behind the Celtics, who make 15.3 threes per game.<\/p>\n
Rebound – Next to defense, rebounding is always a big key to winning. As Pat Riley once said, \u201cNo rebounds, no rings.\u201d The key to rebounding is effort and focus. When the Celtics have more rebounds then their opponents, they are 39-11 when they have fewer rebounds, they are just 9-13. They are just 9-12 in games tin which they are out-rebounded. The Bucks are 28th with 40.8 rebounds per game while the Celtics are 4th with 46.5 rebounds per game. The Celtics have to fight to beat the Bucks to every rebound.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t Underestimate the Bucks – The Bucks do not have their best player and often the Celtics relax and underestimate short handed teams. However, the Bucks are still a rival in the Eastern Conference that can play hard. The Celtics have to give max effort on the boards and on defense and they have to give that effort for the entire game and not just 1 or 2 quarters. They also have to focus on taking and making the best shots and taking care of the ball. They can\u2019t relax and expect an easy game.<\/p>\n
3 Point Shooting – The Celtics are 3rd in the league, taking 42.1 three pointers per game. They are shooting 36.3% as a team from beyond the arc. The Bucks are 11th, averaging 38.6 threes a game and they are 2nd in the league shooting 38.6% on threes as a team. The Celtics make 15.3 threes a game while the Bucks make 14.9 thees a game. The Celtics need to work to get open and move the ball to find the best shots. If the 3\u2019s aren\u2019t falling, they need to take the ball inside. And they need to defend the perimeter or the Bucks will bury them in 3s as they did in the first game when they shot 44.8% from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n
X-Factors
On the Road – The Celtics are on the road and so will have the distractions of travel, staying in hotels, and playing in front of a hostile crowd. They need to stay focused and not allow any of those distractions to take away from playing their game. Historically, the Celtics are just 45-73 in Milwaukee. They need to stay focused and play hard and not let up.<\/p>\n
Coaching – Doc Rivers coached the Celtics from 2004 until 2013 and quit when the Celtics traded Pierce and Garnett to start a rebuild. The Celtics had a relatively short rebuild and have been largely successful since he left. Doc has struggled in each of his stops with the Clippers, 76ers and now the Bucks. Doc would love nothing more than to beat his former team while Joe just wants to beat everybody, no matter who they are.<\/p>\n
Officiating – The officiating can always be an x-factor. Some referees call the game tight and others let them play. Some favor the home team and others call it evenly. Some refs just seem to have an agenda that doesn\u2019t fit the play on the court. And sometimes the refs are simply bad. The Celtics have to play through however the refs call the game, whether it is tight or they let them play or they make terrible calls. The Celtics can\u2019t allow bad calls or no calls to take away their focus on the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boston Celtics (51-25) at Milwaukee Bucks (30-46)Friday, April 3, 20268:00 PM ETTV: NBCSB, FDSWI, NBA-LPRadio: 98.5 Sports Hub,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3775],"tags":[7,103,38331,102,121,3871,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-696632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-bucks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bucks","10":"tag-celtics-game-previews","11":"tag-milwaukee","12":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","13":"tag-milwaukeebucks","14":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116343003143002549","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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