The Boston Celtics took a big blow today after the Milwaukee Bucks dominated them in Game 1 of their second-round series. The Celtics didn’t have an answer for Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday, who took over and gave their team the 101-89 win at TD Garden.
One of the Celtics’ best players, Marcus Smart, had a difficult game and was unable to make an impact on the defensive end, which made things a lot easier for the Bucks. Smart took some big shots during the match, first popping his shoulder out, and exiting the game for a couple of minutes.
If that wasn’t bad enough, he was spotted limping back to the locker room once the game was over, which is anything but good news for the C’s. Smart, the newly-crowned Defensive Player of the Year, is the best defender on the team, and if he goes down, things will look very bad for his team.
Meanwhile, the Bucks took advantage of every mistake the Celtics made and pulled off a big win as visitors, without Khris Middleton on the court and with Giannis Antetokounmpo having an unspectacular day on the scoreboard.
Ime Udoka has work to do ahead of Game 2. The Celtics are way better than the team we saw today, and they need to find that spark that they had against the Brooklyn Nets again. Hopefully, Smart’s issues aren’t serious and he can return to the second game of the series. Otherwise, the Bucks will have more chances to take a commanding 2-0 lead as they go back to Milwaukee.
Marcus previewed this series sending a big message to the Bucks, but now he could miss some action if his injuries are serious.
