The Boston Celtics are currently in second place in the Eastern Conference, behind the Milwaukee Bucks by only 2.5 games.
If the Celtics want to have any chance of clinching the number one seed in the Eastern Conference, they need to win the final game of their season series against the Bucks. This should give them enough boost to push them over the top.
Nevertheless, Boston didn’t do itself any favors when it suffered a demoralizing loss to the shorthanded Washington Wizards, who were missing Bradley Beal and Kyle Kuzma. This setback to the Wizards was particularly difficult for Boston to overcome. The Wizards could shoot 54.5 percent from the floor against the Celtics, who were outrebounded and committed more turnovers than their opponent.
Jayson Tatum, who leads the Celtics in scoring with an average of 30.1 points per game, is the one man who may single-handedly bring down the powerful Bucks. Jaylen Brown, who scores 26.8 points per game on average, will need to provide a lot of assistance for him as well.
The Bucks have a 54-21 and are currently in first place in the Eastern Conference. They have also won seven of their past ten games.
The fact that the Bucks can cause significant damage even when their top players aren’t logging a lot of minutes is one of the factors that makes them such a threat in these final games of the regular season. The recent victory that they had over the Indiana Pacers, in which Jrue Holiday scored a career-high 51 points on a perfect 20-for-30 shooting performance, and Giannis Antetokounmpo achieved a triple-double performance by scoring 38 points, grabbing 17 rebounds, and dishing out 12 assists, is an encouraging sign that this will be the case.
Due to the aggressive manner in which they are now playing, they are virtually unbeatable; nevertheless, we know that their defense could be more effective in the league. Tomorrow is our chance to determine whether their scoring power is sufficient to overcome the Celtics.
