Jaylen Brown scored 30 points on 11-for-18 shooting, including 6 of 10 from beyond the arc, and the host Boston Celtics stormed to a 109-86 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night in Game 2 of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Jayson Tatum added 29 points and eight assists for the second-seeded Celtics, who avenged a 12-point loss two days earlier to even the series at 1-1. Grant Williams scored 21 off the bench.
Giannis Antetokounmpo led Milwaukee with 28 points but shot only 11 of 27 from the field, 1 of 4 from 3-point range and 5 of 9 from the free-throw line. Jrue Holiday scored 19 points and Bobby Portis and Pat Connaughton finished with 13 apiece.
Jaylen Brown spins to the rack for his 30th point of the night!#NBAPlayoffs presented by Google Pixel on TNT pic.twitter.com/2AOAuwUsNN
— NBA (@NBA) May 4, 2022
The series will shift to Milwaukee for the next two games, starting with Game 3 on Saturday.
The Celtics connected on 20 of 43 (46.5 percent) of their 3-point attempts. By contrast, Milwaukee made only 3 of 18 (16.7 percent) from long distance.
The Bucks, who spent nearly the entire game trying to play catch-up, trailed by as many as 18 points early in the fourth quarter. But Milwaukee trimmed the deficit to 12 with 4:30 remaining after Antetokounmpo made two free throws following a foul by Al Horford.
Boston quickly squashed Milwaukee’s comeback attempt. Tatum made a 3-pointer to start a 13-4 run that put the Celtics on top by 21 points with 1:58 left.
Boston sprinted to a 65-40 lead at the half. Brown led all scorers with 25 points at the break.
The Celtics wasted no time in grabbing a double-digit lead. They seized an 18-3 advantage in the first 6:08 behind a jump shot, two free throws and two 3-pointers by Brown, one 3-pointer apiece by Tatum and Grant Williams, and a jump shot by Horford.
Milwaukee fell behind 27-12 before cutting the deficit to 11 at the end of the first quarter.
The Celtics took command again in the second quarter. Tatum sank two free throws to give Boston a 49-29 lead with 4:38 left in the half, and Brown’s 3-pointer in the final minute increased the advantage to 25 points at the break.