On January 12, Beijing time, the NBA regular season ushered in a key matchup, and the Bucks hosted the Celtics. Previously, the Celtics had a record of 29 wins and 8 losses, ranking first in the East, and the team's various statistics were among the best in the league: offensive efficiency of 120.9 + defensive efficiency of 110.4 were second in the league, and net efficiency was first in the league; in addition, 47.6 rebounds per game + 6.4 blocks per game + 16.2 three-pointers per game were all first in the league! The average output of 100 points per game of the starting five also made them overwhelmingly dominant in the regular season! In the second round of All-Star voting announced early this morning, the Celtics started five people, all of whom were in the top 10 in the Eastern Conference front and backcourt: Tatum got 2.94 million votes and was third in the Eastern frontcourt, Brown was sixth in the Eastern Conference with 750,000 votes, and Boshen was sixth in the Eastern Conference with 430,000 votes, in addition to White and Holiday ranked seventh and ninth in the Eastern backcourt respectively.
Compared to the Celtics, the Bucks started with a 25-12 record, although they ranked second in the East, but they lost four of their last five games, leaving them four wins behind the Celtics. The Bucks' problems are acute, the team's offensive efficiency and shooting percentage are among the top three in the league, and the league's second average points per game are the second, but the defensive ability is outside the top 20 in the league, and losing Holiday and Allen is equivalent to losing the support of the defensive system. Although Lillard has averaged 25 points and 7 assists per game this season, he has become a sieve on the defensive end and has been repeatedly beaten by various point lists. In the second round of voting for All-Stars officially announced by the NBA, Brother Alphabet continued to be elected as the vote king with 3.476 million votes, leading the league and beating Lao Zhan with 3.096 million votes. And Lillard also has 1.414 million votes, ranking third in the Eastern backcourt.
Both teams presented the strongest lineup in this game, on the Celtics side, Holiday + White + Jaylen Brown + Tatum + Porzingis, and on the Bucks side, Lillard + Beasley + Middleton + Brother Alphabet + Lopez. However, from the very beginning of the game, there was a one-sided trend, Lillard stepped back to score a three-pointer against Boshen, Brother Alphabet shook Jaylen Brown, strode to the basket and dunked the sky! followed by Lillard another three-pointer, Brother Alphabet faced Porzingis, and played 2+1 strongly! During this period, the Celtics only had Brown single + Tatum free throws to score 4 points. In the middle of the game, Boshen continued to slam the team to close the point difference, and Beasley and Da Luo blossomed inside and outside to stop the Celtics. In the second half, Hauser and Boshen once chased only 4 points from inside and outside, and the Bucks ushered in a second wave of outbreaks.
Lillard and Portis took turns to make fouls, Beasley hit a three-point shot, Brother Alphabet attacked Tatum strongly, and then passed the ball without looking at people, and assisted Portis to score three points in the bottom corner! At the end of the quarter, Brother Alphabet threw himself and grabbed it, Portis continued to score three points + counterattack a dragon layup, after the first quarter, the Bucks led the Celtics 41-23! The whole team on the Celtics' side has been playing three-point iron, and after Middleton hit a three-pointer against Holiday in the middle of the period, the difference exceeded 30 points!
In the second half of the game, Beasley burst out and out, and the Celtics relied on Brown's singles to barely maintain the situation, and the point difference has been hovering around 30 points! At the end of the quarter, it rained three points, and Brother Alphabet continued to dunk violently, and the difference had reached 38 points. Tatum and White's layups were a drop in the bucket as the Bucks led the Celtics 75-38 at halftime. Antetokounmpo had 18 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists in the half, Lillard had 17 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, Beasley had 10 points, and Portis had 16 points and 9 rebounds! The Celtics scored the most points with Brown with 10 points and Tatum with 7 points. Faced with a point difference of nearly 40 points, the Celtics directly replaced the bench in the second half and surrendered!
The Celtics relied on three-pointers from Mikhailiuk and Pritchard to keep the gap widening. But Beasley responded mercilessly with two three-pointers, and it was not until the second half that the Bucks finally replaced the bench, and the game officially entered garbage time! At the end of the third quarter, the Bucks led the Celtics 111-70, and the Bucks beat the Celtics 135-102 at the end of the game!
Bucks stats, Antetokounmpo 24 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists, Lillard 21 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, Portis 28 points and 12 rebounds, Beasley 16 points and 4 rebounds, Da Lopez 15 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Celtics statistics, Tatum 7 points and 3 assists, Brown 10 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists, Holiday 6 points and 4 rebounds, Porzingis 6 points and 4 assists, White 2 points. The starting five averaged 100 points per game, and today they only scored 31 points combined! 37 points behind the Bucks at halftime, setting a record for the largest halftime deficit in the history of the Celtics in the past 57 years!