'Tis the season of giving and the Celtics sent an early Christmas present to Milwaukee on Saturday night: an undefeated but physically exhausted Warriors team.
After the grueling double-overtime battle against the Celtics on Friday night, the Warriors sputtered to their first loss of the season on Saturday against the decent yet inconsistent Milwaukee Bucks. The Warriors entered Milwaukee with an NBA-record 24-game winning streak to start the season, but could not recover from tired legs and a sluggish first half.
After the grueling double-overtime battle against the Celtics on Friday night, the Warriors sputtered to their first loss of the season on Saturday against the decent yet inconsistent Milwaukee Bucks. The Warriors entered Milwaukee with an NBA-record 24-game winning streak to start the season, but could not recover from tired legs and a sluggish first half.
The Celtics unfortunately came up short of ending Golden State’s historic
streak, but battled valiantly and gave the Warriors a massive scare. The Bucks should be thanking coach Brad
Stevens and his Celtics for physically draining the Warriors players, as Stephen
Curry and Draymond Green played a combined 97 minutes against Boston.
The Warriors, who are arguably the greatest team of the decade, were not their usual dominant selves on Saturday
night.
They surrendered 108 points to a Milwaukee team that only managed 83
points in their previous game against Toronto. The typically-explosive Warriors were moving uncharacteristically slow and finished with a season-low 95 points.
It would be irresponsible to take all credit away from the Bucks.
Their standout center Greg “Moose” Monroe dominated the paint against
the Warriors’ small ball lineups with 28 points and 11 rebounds. Their 7-foot wingman Giannis Antetokounmpo
recorded a triple-double and their 6’6’’ point guard Michael Carter-Williams
came off the bench to make a huge impact on both ends of the floor. Milwaukee’s size advantage proved lethal
against the fatigued Warriors, who notoriously utilize small ball to dispel the
notion that size matters on the basketball court.
Like the Warriors, the Celtics also played the second game
of a back-to-back last night. But unlike
the Warriors, the Celtics were able to bounce back from their tired legs and a
sluggish first half to knock off an inferior opponent.
Isaiah Thomas recorded 21 points and dished a career-high 13
assists while Avery Bradley led all scorers with 23 points to help the Celtics
defeat the sharpshooting Charlotte Hornets.
With the victory, the Celtics have now won 10 consecutive games in the
second night of a back-to-back when on the road. This impressive streak dates back to last
season’s All-Star break.
Boston’s recent strong showings against Golden State and San Antonio, as well as their convincing win over Chicago, have earned the Celtics some
much deserved national media attention. After
Boston’s courageous performance on Friday, it has become evident that the Celtics have the ability to hang with any team in the league.
But the Celtics have no interest in moral victories and Stevens
believes that there are no such things as good losses. Jae Crowder and the other Celtics players
were visibly upset on Friday night after the tough loss, so it was encouraging to see them
immediately bounce back for an important win against an underrated Charlotte team.
Still, it is undeniably frustrating to watch Golden State’s
historic streak come to an end, largely thanks to an arduous endeavor that the
Celtics ultimately started but could not finish. Stevens should be receiving a gift basket as a token of gratitude from Bucks’ head coach Jason Kidd any day now.
