CELTICS VS BUCKS

Boston's physical defense stifled Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving throughout that series, and their balanced attack ensured they moved on and left Brooklyn's ...

TBD TBD Game 1 Game 1 of the Celtics vs. May 1 No. 3 Eastern Conference Semifinals matchup.

The Celtics and Bucks collide in Game 1! How can you watch tonight's Celtics-Bucks game live online? Where can you find a free ABC/ESPN live stream?

YouTube TV and fuboTV offer free trials for eligible subscribers. Additional live streaming options below. The Bucks had very little trouble against the Chicago Bulls, but their biggest defeat of the series was Khris Middleton’s MCL injury.

Get a recap of the Milwaukee Bucks vs. Boston Celtics basketball game.

Midway through the third quarter, Robert Williams III went down at midcourt after taking a hit to the groin. The team said during halftime that Smart had a shoulder “stinger” and a right quad bruise. Antetokounmpo scored eight straight Milwaukee points at the end of the first half to bring a double-digit lead into the break. Boston won 26 of its last 32 games in the regular season and was the only team to sweep its first-round playoff series. I had a good jump to go get it again and I was able to finish the play.” In a way it’s good to get this dud out of the way, offensively.”

Giannis Antetokounmpo scores 24 points, distributes game-high 12 assists while Bucks' physical defense limits Celtics to 89 points in 101-89 win.

With 48 seconds remaining, Tatum drove and kicked it out to White for a three from the right wing that cut Boston's deficit to 76-69. As a team, the Celtics were held to 33.3 percent shooting from the field and went 18/50 (36 percent) from long range. With 4:03 to play, after Antetokounmpo missed a free throw, he picked up his third foul going for the rebound. That put the Bucks ahead 101-87 with 2:10 left, and coach Udoka decided it was time to empty the bench. As a team, the Bucks were 10/20 from beyond the arc, generated 18 fast-break points, 14 off turnovers, and 14 in the paint. Antetokounmpo utilized his height and length to throw the ball over the top of the defense, and he was making simple swing passes to shooters open due to the extra attention required to slow down Antetokounmpo. He also grabbed eight rebounds in the first half. He went with a trainer to the locker room, hunched over, holding his arm. At the 4:10 mark, Tatum stepped into a pull-up three from above the break and buried it, giving him six points and cutting his team's deficit to 45-40. But Grayson Allen countered with his third three of the day, giving him nine points and pushing Milwaukee's lead back to eight. At the 7:41 mark, with the Celtics trailing 33-32, Jaylen Brown missed a three from 25-feet out. The second-year guard drained an open three from the right corner a couple of minutes later to put Boston back on top, 32-31. Antetokounmpo lofted a pass to Wes Matthews for an alley-oop layup that gave Milwaukee a 27-24 advantage entering the second frame.

The Celtics lost Sunday at TD Garden, falling 101-89 to the Bucks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Antetokounmpo thrived as a facilitator in this one and had seven assists in the first half alone to set his teammates open for open threes. He was energetic on the boards with eight rebounds in 22 minutes (including seven in the first half) and also added three blocks while holding his own against Antetokounmpo and Bucks seven-footer Brook Lopez. The Bucks' frontcourt duo of Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez made life very challenging inside for Boston, which struggled to finish at the rim. The Bucks hit 50% of their threes in the first half, while Holiday and Allen combined for six of Milwaukee's 12 deep balls. Tatum and Brown didn't get much help from their supporting cast -- Payton Pritchard and Grant Williams shot a combined 4 for 12 from 3-point range -- but the Celtics will only go as far as the Jays take them in this series, and they have some work to do entering Game 2. The Celtics shouldn't miss two thirds of their shots going forward, and they could open up the floor more by hitting more open threes (18 for 50 in Game 1).

Between Lopez and Giannis Antetokounmpo, Boston was trying to shoot through a field of windmills.

But there's no doubt Lopez and the Milwaukee defense scored a round-one knockdown. Boston wants clean drive and kicks, but Milwaukee was stoning them to such a degree that the kick-out passes were more like bailout passes. By then the Bucks had time to rotate back to shooters and contest. He finished with 21 points but only shot 6 of 18 from the field. Tatum drew the superstar attention, as he should, facing occasional doubles but more often simply seeing two or three help defenders within a step of his driving lanes while dealing with relentless ball pressure. Boston has its own swarming defense, and we saw plenty of it in Game 1. They fought over screens and the wings were on high alert to sink down into driving lanes. After all that, then you run into Lopez. The result: Milwaukee only gave up 20 points in the paint for the entire game. If you are looking to completely discredit single-game plus-minus numbers, look no further than Brook Lopez's minus-10 line in the Milwaukee Bucks' Game 1 victory over the Boston Celtics on Sunday. Lopez was a superhero. Under Mike Budenholzer, the Bucks have long been willing to concede 3-pointers if it means controlling the paint. Jrue Holiday, Javon Carter and Pat Connaughton sucked out all the air between them and Boston's ball-handlers. It felt as if the Celtics were trying to shoot through a field of windmills.

The Celtics' offense fell flat around him too, scoring 89 points in a Game 1 loss vs the Bucks. Jayson Tatum met intense defensive pressure and Milwaukee took ...

The Bucks gave the Celtics a wakeup call in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, putting the clamps on Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

Antetokounmpo thrived as a facilitator in this one and had seven assists in the first half alone to set his teammates open for open threes. The Celtics will have to work for their offense in this series. The Bucks hit 50% of their threes in the first half, while Holiday and Allen combined for six of Milwaukee's 12 deep balls. Tatum and Brown didn't get much help from their supporting cast -- Payton Pritchard and Grant Williams shot a combined 4 for 12 from 3-point range -- but the Celtics will only go as far as the Jays take them in this series, and they have some work to do entering Game 2. The Celtics shouldn't miss two thirds of their shots going forward, and they could open up the floor more by hitting more open threes (18 for 50 in Game 1). But Milwaukee has far fewer defensive weak links than the Nets while playing a much more physical game. The Celtics found that out the hard way Sunday at TD Garden, falling 101-89 to the Bucks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The 2021–22 Defensive Player of the Year took a few hits to his right quad in Sunday's loss.

Smart also had to leave Sunday’s Game 1 with just over a minute remaining in the second quarter after taking a stinger to his right shoulder. Stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined to go 10-for-31 from the field in the loss. He played for six more minutes before Udoka pulled the Celtics starters from the floor.

Entering this series the Boston Celtics looked like clear favorite against the Milwaukee Bucks based of their first-round sweep of the Kevin Durant-led ...

Celtics: Boston quickly realized that the Bucks aren't the Nets and as a result dropped Game 1 of the series. But when Milwaukee worked up a 17-point lead on the road in Game 1, those assumptions about how this series would go quickly changed, ad the Bucks continue to prove that perhaps missing Middleton isn't that big of a deal. Though the Bucks fared incredibly well without Middleton in their first-round matchup against the Bulls, the Celtics are a different beast, one that has at times looked like the best team in the East.