Wednesday night’s encounter against the Boston Celtics could have been a great comeback story for the Milwaukee Bucks. After being down by as much as 21 points in the first half, the Bucks went on a wild surge in the fourth quarter to bring the lead all the way to just three points.
Milwaukee had a chance to steal away this win at the death — except that they didn’t.
Damian Lillard Vocal on Milwaukee Bucks’ Late Surge
It was a simple case of being too little, too late for the Bucks. They waited too long to mount their comeback, which resulted in the Celtics being able to hold on to secure a statement win, 119-116.
You can’t fault Milwaukee for trying, though. After the game, Damian Lillard spoke out about his team’s late surge and how they had a mindset shift in the fourth quarter following a lackluster effort in the first three periods:
“I think we just stepped up our aggressiveness,” Lillard said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “At halftime we came in the locker room and said we gotta step to ‘em. Everything they did was a little too comfortable on both ends of the floor. We weren’t disrupting them enough defensively and we weren’t making them get into rotations and guard hard enough offensively. You see what happened when we started doing that. We gave ourselves a chance. We were right there. I think it’s that story of you know, you gotta put four quarters together, especially with a really good team.”
Lillard himself had a slow start in this one, but he stepped it up after the halftime break. The seven-time All-Star eventually finished with 27 points on 11-of-24 shooting, to go along with three triples, five rebounds, five assists, and two steals in 38 minutes of action.
Dame also came up with some big plays on both ends during crunch time, and he was the instigator of what turned out to be a botched comeback attempt by the Bucks.
It’s back to the drawing board for Milwaukee, who are now down 0-1 in the season series against arguably their biggest rivals in the East.
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