The Milwaukee Bucks escaped by the skin of their teeth with a 103-101 victory in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference semifinals against the Boston Celtics. While the Bucks lead this series 2-1, it hasn’t been pretty, as they’ve struggled to score efficiently throughout much of this series.
The Bucks are scoring just 1.0 point per possession, down from the dominant offense we’ve seen in the regular season in which they scored 1.15 points per possession, third among all teams. While some offensive struggles could be expected without the services of swingman Khris Middleton facing a Celtics team which was first in defensive rating (106.2), their issues have been far worse than anticipated.
Giannis Antetokounmpo found a rhythm in Game 3 after shooting poorly through the first two games of this series, but we can’t say the same for the rest of the team. Jrue Holiday is just 26-for-70 (37.1 percent) from the field during this series, and the Bucks are severely lacking guard and wing play without Middleton.
They don’t have a ton of 3-point shooting, as they’re just 24-for-86 (27.9 percent) from behind the arc and simply lack the explosiveness we’re used to seeing from this team. We can credit that to the Celtics’ defense.
Still, there’s one constant in this series: They’ve gone under their team total in every game. It’s tough to imagine that changing here in a pivotal Game 4 against a desperate Celtics team, so I’ll go back to the well and play the Bucks team total under 106.5.
The play: Milwaukee Bucks team total Under 106.5.