By: Corey Moen

*Exhale*

The Milwaukee Bucks squeaked out a 103-101 victory over the Boston Celtics to go up 2-1 in the Eastern Conference Semis. Milwaukee was led by Giannis Antetokounmpo who scored 42 points, 12 rebounds, and dished out eight assists. Giannis also took 30 shots in a game which he has not done since Game 3 of the East Semis last season against the Brooklyn Nets where he went 14-31 and scored 33 points in an 86-83 victory. Milwaukee also got contributions from Jrue Holiday who dropped 25 points, six rebounds, and three steals. Holiday similar to Giannis, also shot 30 times in a game and the last time he did that was on December 17 vs the New Orleans Pelicans where he shot 18-36 and scored 40 points in a 116-112 loss.

Boston trailed 97-90 with under 5:00 minutes left in the game, but timely shots made by Al Horford and free throws by Jaylen Brown put Boston up 1 with 1:49 remaining, but a clutch bucket made by Giannis who then proceeded to block Jaylen Brown’s driving layup which led to a basket on the other end by Jrue Holiday to secure the Game 3 victory.

The Celtics were led by Jaylen Brown who scored 27 points, and 12 rebounds. Horford had 22 points and 16 rebounds.

Other news:

Jayson Tatum only scored 10 points on 4-19 shooting it was a rare bad game for Tatum who shot only 21 percent from the field. The last time Tatum shot less than 25 percent from the field, was a game on November 28th against the Toronto Raptors where Tatum scored eight points on 2-16 shooting so expect Tatum to bounce back in Game 4.

George Hill played his first game in the pstseason after recovering from an strained abdominal muscle

Robert Williams went back to the locker room in the 3rd quarter after taking an elbow to the face from Milwaukee’s Bobby Portis: Williams later returned to the game.

Grayson Allen started in his first postseason game as part of a lineup shakeup after the Bucks posted their lowest point total this season in a 109-86 loss to the Celtics in Game 2. Portis moved into a bench role.

UPDATE ON KHRIS MIDDLETON:

Coach Mike Budenholzer had already ruled out Middleton playing in Game 4, but did not rule out Middleton potentially coming back this series. If Middleton is able to return this series it would be a massive lift to the Bucks offense who gone through stretches of scoring droughts without the presence of Khris Middleton out there.

Stat of the Day:

Play of the Day: