Celtics-Bucks Preview

By ALAN FERGUSON
Posted Mar 21 2012 6:43PM

In his first two games with the Milwaukee Bucks, Monta Ellis has contributed to one of the team's longest win streaks in a decade.

While the recently acquired guard has yet to produce the kind of scoring performance he's been known for, he might have a chance Thursday night based on some of his previous games against the Boston Celtics.

Making his highly anticipated home debut, Ellis will try to lead the Bucks to a seventh straight win and end their four-game skid against the Celtics.

Milwaukee (21-24) got Ellis - one of the league's top scorers - from Golden State in a five-player deal March 13, and he had 18 points in his debut Friday, a 120-98 road victory over his former club.

Ellis was one of six players in double figures during that win and during a 116-87 rout in Portland on Tuesday. Ellis had 14 points and nine assists while Drew Gooden led the way with 19 points.

"Everybody's out there having fun, sharing the ball and everybody's on the same page trying to get some wins," said Ellis, who averages 21.4 points. "That's all that matters to us."

The Bucks are one victory shy of their longest streak since an eight-game run from Jan. 8-21, 2002, and Ellis will try to help by continuing his recent success against the Celtics (24-21). The guard, who has averaged 27.4 points in his last five games versus Boston, had 41 points in his previous matchup last March in Boston and 37 in a home win over the Celtics on Dec. 28, 2009.

This time, he'll face a Celtics team that has split its past eight games and 3-3 on a season-high, eight-game road trip. Boston avoided a third straight defeat on its lengthy trek by holding off Atlanta 79-76 on Monday to strengthen its hold on seventh place in the Eastern Conference.

The Celtics, who are three games ahead of the Bucks, nearly blew a 15-point lead in the final 2:57 before Ray Allen hit a pair of late free throws. Boston shot 39.2 percent in its first game since learning Jermaine O'Neal will miss the rest of the season following wrist surgery.

"I'm trying to get our team to understand we don't have a margin for error," coach Doc Rivers said.

Rivers' team, though, managed to beat Milwaukee 102-96 on Feb. 29 without O'Neal. Kevin Garnett had a season-high 25 points and 10 rebounds in that win, and Rajon Rondo recorded one of his career-high four triple-doubles this season.

Ersan Ilyasova led Milwaukee with 25 points and 10 rebounds, but Gooden (23 points) was the only other player with more than 10 points. Gooden has averaged 19.1 points since that game and was named the Eastern Conference's player of the week Monday.

Gooden will try to help the Bucks avoid a third straight home loss to Boston and earn only their fourth win in the last 16 games in the series. Milwaukee is also seeking a third straight win at the Bradley Center and fifth win in six games there.

To earn that victory, the Bucks might need to limit Paul Pierce, who has averaged 23.5 points on 60.0 percent shooting (18 of 30) during his last two games in Milwaukee.

Celtics end Bucks' 6-game winning streak, 100-91

By CHRIS JENKINS
Posted Mar 22 2012 11:55PM

MILWAUKEE (AP) With a team led by three veteran stars playing the seventh game of a taxing eight-game road trip, it wouldn't have been shocking to see the Boston Celtics simply run out of gas.

Instead, they had more than enough energy to slow down and disrupt the suddenly streaking Milwaukee Bucks.

Paul Pierce scored 25 points to help Boston to a 100-91 victory over Milwaukee on Thursday night, snapping the Bucks' six-game winning streak.

"It's a good win definitely tonight, especially the way Milwaukee's been playing as of late," Pierce said. "This is a mentally strong group. We understand it's been a long trip. This is a group that wants to get the next win and make it a great trip."

Kevin Garnett had 16 points and 10 rebounds and Mickael Pietrus scored 13 points for the Celtics, who improved to 4-3 on the long road trip.

"These last two wins have been big," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "We felt like this game, we would have enough rest to play this game. We took two days off and that helped us."

Brandon Jennings had 19 points for Milwaukee.

It was the Bucks home debut for Monta Ellis, who was acquired along with forward Ekpe Udoh in a trade with the Golden State Warriors last week. Ellis, who went first in pregame introductions and received a loud ovation, scored 13 points on 6-for-18 shooting.

Ellis said he didn't feel any additional pressure in front of his new hometown fans, and is getting as comfortable as can be expected with his new team.

"It's still up and down, but I feel comfortable where I'm at," Ellis said. "Just got to knock some shots down."

Milwaukee came in with four straight games with 30-plus assists as a team. They had 23 on Thursday, but committed 15 turnovers and struggled to move the ball down the stretch.

"They took us out of that," Drew Gooden said.

Gooden struggled after several recent strong offensive performances, scoring six points on 2 for 12 shooting.

"I didn't have my best game, Monta didn't have his best game," Gooden said. "A lot of guys didn't have their best game."

And as well as the Bucks have played in their recent winning streak, those wins hardly came against the NBA's elite teams. Faced with a tougher challenge, the Bucks didn't quite measure up.

Bucks coach Scott Skiles had praise for Udoh, the lower-profile acquisition in the trade, but otherwise wasn't happy with his defense.

"The only really good defensive minutes we had was when Ekpe was in the game," Skiles said. "He was plugging everything up, doing what he does. Other than that, we really struggled tonight."

Before the game, Skiles said he challenged Jennings to defend Rajon Rondo, something the Bucks have struggled with in the past. The Bucks generally contained Rondo - he had 10 points and 14 assists - but didn't have a defensive answer for Pierce.

Rivers said before the game that he was concerned about his team keeping its energy up in the final two games of the trip. But it was the Bucks who struggled down the stretch.

Boston led 74-71 going into the fourth quarter, then jumped out to an 82-73 lead with an 8-0 run.

With Milwaukee later trailing 88-77, Jennings missed a jumper and Keyon Dooling hit a long jumper on the other end, putting the Celtics up 90-77 with 5:54 left.

Milwaukee showed some signs of life on a four-point play by Jennings - a layup, a foul and a technical on Rivers - but the Bucks still trailed 92-83 with 4:34 left.

Two free throws by Jennings cut the lead to 92-85, but a jumper by Garnett and a layup by Rondo put Boston ahead 96-85 with 3:26 remaining.

NOTES: Rivers said before the game that former Cleveland Cavalier Ryan Hollins is expected to join the Celtics once he passes a physical. "It's not official, but he agreed and all the papers are being drawn up and hopefully by the end of the day, he'll be a Celtic," Rivers said. ... Milwaukee's Carlos Delfino had a scary moment in the third quarter, accidentally taking a hard hit to the head when he hit the shoulder of teammate Drew Gooden. After spending a few minutes on the ground, Delfino continued to play. ... Boston's Brandon Bass appeared to tweak his ankle near the end of the second quarter but was able to continue playing. ... Skiles was called for a technical foul in the first quarter.

Notebook: Celtics 100, Bucks 91

Posted Thursday March 22, 2012 11:27PM

By Rick Braun, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: Paul Pierce scored 25 points and the Boston defense clamped down hard in the second half as the Celtics snapped Milwaukee's six-game winning streak with a 100-91 victory over the Bucks Thursday night at the Bradley Center.

After allowing 58 first-half points, the Celtics held the Bucks (21-25) to just 33 after the intermission. Milwaukee, which had four straight games with 30 or more assists entering the night, had 17 at the half but recorded just six in the second half.

Kevin Garnett chipped in 16 points and 10 rebounds, Brandon Bass added 12 points and 10 rebounds and Rajon Rondo had 10 points and 14 assists as the Celtics improved to 4-3 on their eight-game odyssey on the road.

Brandon Jennings led the Bucks with 19 points but also had five of the Bucks' 15 turnovers. Ersan Ilyasova had a double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds.

QUOTABLE: "The first half they were really turning the corners off the pick-and-roll with Monta (Ellis) and (Mike) Dunleavy, so we wanted to take that away. I thought once we took that away it was to our advantage because we kept them on the perimeter instead of attacking the basket."
-- Pierce on the Celtics' halftime decision to switch on all picks.

THE STAT: The Celtics finished with 11 blocks, one off their season high, as they constantly kept the Bucks from getting to the basket. Reserve center Greg Stiemsma, a native of Randolph, Wis., who played at the University of Wisconsin from 2004-'08, had five of the blocks.

TURNING POINT: The Bucks the Celtics for 58 first-half points while shooting 49 percent. At halftime, Celtics head coach Doc Rivers decided to switch on every pick. The Bucks scored just 13 points in the third quarter and 20 in the fourth quarter.

QUOTABLE II: "We switched on everything, which we never do. I mean, we literally never do that. They were killing us in the first half. Scotty (Skiles) was running great stuff. The way we looked at it, switching couldn't have been any worse than what we normally do. That was a big change. It's unusual for us to give in that quickly, but we thought we needed to do it and I thought it made a big difference defensively for us."
-- Rivers

HOT: Pierce made 10 of 15 shots, including all three of his 3-pointers, and Keyon Dooling, who played for the Bucks last year, went 4-for-4 off the bench for the Celtics.

NOT: After shooting 49 percent (24-for-49) in the first half, the Bucks shot just 29.3 percent (12-of-41) in the second half.

GOOD MOVE: With this being the first game of the Bucks' only three-games-in-three-nights set of the season, Bucks head coach Scott Skiles cleared the bench with 1:33 left and his team down 98-87.

ROOKIE WATCH: Not only did Stiemsma block five shots, he also had four steals and six points in 24 minutes.

NOTABLE: The game marked the home debut for new acquisitions Monta Ellis and Ekpe Udoh. Ellis had 13 points and seven assists, and Udoh finished with two points and 10 rebounds. ... Skiles was hit with a technical foul with 9:25 in the first quarter after officials missed an apparent goal-tending call when Garnett swatted Jennings' floating shot. ... Rondo drilled a half-court shot at the end of the first quarter, but it was a split-second after the horn. ... Rivers picked up a technical foul with 4:34 in the fourth quarter protesting a no-call under the basket that led to a Bucks fast break. ... The Bucks led, 58-56, at the half. It was their biggest lead of the game.

UP NEXT: For the Celtics, Wednesday at Philadelphia, Friday vs. Washington, Saturday @ Charlotte. For the Bucks, Friday @Charlotte, Saturday vs. Indiana, Monday @ New York.

• Celtics: O'Neal, Wilcox
• Bucks: Brown, Leuer

• Celtics: Rivers
• Bucks: Skiles

• Lead Changes: 6
• Times Tied: 3

• Arena: Bradley Center, Milwaukee, WI
• Officials: #27 Dick Bavetta, #6 Tony Brown, #74 Curtis Blair
• Attendance: 15171
• Duration: 2:03