BOSTON — The Boston Celtics built an early 19 point lead thanks to a 15-0 first quarter run and played with that lead for the entire first half. It got as high as 22, but Tyler Herro caught fire in the third and the Celtics went into the fourth up only eight. Those eight points were erased in about four minutes and the Nets took their first lead of the game with just under seven minutes to play. The Celtics answered behind Paul George and Neemias Queta, coming away with the 109-102 win.

WHAT THE BOX SCORE TELLS YOU

- Paul George held things down without Jayson Tatum: He had 25 points, five assists and four steals. He had 10/2/2/2 in the first quarter to set the tone, going +14. Then, in the fourth quarter, George closed by scoring nine points and adding two more steals.

- Derrick White stepped up: 24 points and seven assists, including 11 points and an assist in the fourth. 

“Obviously with JT out and then [Payton Pritchard] going out too, I had a little bit more aggressive mindset,” he said after the game. “And maybe the next game is a little different, so just kind of go out there and have fun playing basketball,”

- Mitchell Robinson got back on the boards: He had six offensive rebounds, though a couple were his own misses. He came off the bench again in this game, which was interesting to see. I’m curious to see if he gets back into the starting lineup when Tatum returns on Friday.

“He delivered tonight big time, but he's been playing well for us,” Mazzulla said. “It's really more of a compliment because he's one of the best rebounders of all time, so any chance there is a little bit of a dip, we all have to hit the panic button, and it's just not the case. His process has been great, and it'll continue to be better and better for us.”

WHAT THE BOX SCORE DOESN’T TELL YOU

- Neemias Queta was huge in the fourth: Derrick White and Paul George will rightly get a lot of the attention for the clutch performance, but Queta was in the middle of most of the positive plays. 

"Yeah, I thought he was really great,” Paul George said. “He had some great finishes, some tip-ins, just keeping basketballs alive, rebounding for us, protecting the basket. He was great … it was the reason why we were able to pull away."

- Paul George got the Jayson Tatum treatment, then he didn’t: Tatum’s substitution pattern so far has been pretty simple: Play the entire first and third quarters, and then final six minutes or so of the second and fourth. The Celtics used George that way in the first half, but then subbed him out at the six minute mark of the third, electing to bring him back to start the fourth. 

“First half, he kind of had a good groove going, so I wanted to keep him in there,” Joe Mazzulla said. “Second half, I thought a couple lineups got a little stagnant, and he's a guy that I would rather hold in the quarter and play the whole fourth, and trust him for those 12 minutes straight in the fourth quarter … I knew he'd be in position to deliver for us.”

- The Bucks missed open shots, then they didn’t, then they did again: The first half was a combination of good Celtics defense and some flat-out misses by the Bucks. That corrected itself in the third and Boston saw its lead dwindle to single-digits. They shot 10-27 from three in the first half, 6-8 in the third quarter, and 3-12 in the fourth. 

- The Celtics went with a lot of double big combinations: Without Jayson Tatum (rest) the Celtics went with some unique combinations.

Robinson and Luka Garza was the most frequent combination, playing 16:48 together. We got some tastes of Robinson/Queta, and Queta/Garza as well. 

Garza has been playing really well to start the season, so this could just be a way to get him some extra minutes on a night where lineups were already wonky without Tatum and with Pritchard leaving the game with a scratched eye. 

- Baylor Scheierman was low-key great: You wouldn't look at nine points and 11 rebounds and say he was great, but he was 3-4 from three and the shots were timely. He also grabbed three offensive boards and his +11 was the best on the team. He hit a big three to end the first half, hit back-to-back threes to quell one of the Bucks runs, and a couple of his offensive rebounds came late in the game to hold Milwaukee off.

REVISITING THE PREVIEW

Let's look back at what I wrote before the game and see how I did.

“Battle for the Boards: The Celtics have been shooting poorly lately, but their offensive rebounding has saved them on most bad shooting nights. The Bucks, however, are fifth in the NBA in defensive rebounds per game and 10th in defensive rebound percentage. There is room for Boston to get in for putbacks or to extend possessions, but the Bucks are a good enough rebounding team to make that difficult. It might be the one skill they have to bother Boston.” 

The Celtics were rebounding 31% of their misses at halftime when the lead was at 21. Mitchell Robinson was back on the boards, grabbing five by halftime. The Celtics finished with 19 offensive rebounds, but weirdly, they only had 14 second chance points. The Bucks recovered well after those Celtics rebounds and got blocks and stops. 

Milwaukee did make things difficult for Boston, but it was more about their shooting in the second half than it was their rebounding. 

“Transition points: The Bucks are the seventh-worst team in allowing steals, giving up 9.6 per game so far. The Bucks also allow the third-most three-pointers, undoubtedly part of allowing fast breaks that give trailers clean looks. The Celtics force the fifth-most turnovers in the league, so this is not only a chance to get out and get some easy ones, this is a chance to hit some transition threes and snap a couple of cold starts.” 

The steals were a big problem for the Bucks in the first half, so I suppose this was half right. The Celtics scored 15 points off nine Bucks turnovers before halftime, but then just two points off six in the second half. 

This really felt like the Celtics saw an opportunity to rest against a bad team and coast to the finish. Mazzulla was searching for answers the whole second half, and luckily George, White, and Queta came through.

“Payton Pritchard: Yep, I was talking about Pritchard in that last sentence. This man needs a get right game, and the Bucks are a great opponent for that. If Pritchard can get out and operate against a retreating defense, he can have a big night.”

He did not have a big night. He actually left the game with an eye abrasion and his status moving forward is up in the air. 

He did start to get himself going early, and he did have 10 points and five assists in 18:05. But he wasn’t exactly ripping it up out there. Of course, he’s had plenty of games that look like this and then he drills four shots in a row, so who knows if something like that was coming.