George and Tatum Erase a 20-6 Hole as Celtics Rout the Bucks 117-97 for a Third Straight Win

For the first five minutes in Milwaukee on Sunday night, it looked like the Boston Celtics had walked into a trap. The Bucks came flying out of the gates, Kyle Kuzma could not miss, and before the Garden had settled into its seats the home side led 20-6. Fourteen points down on the road, against a team desperate to stop the rot, and Boston's night seemed to be slipping away before it had begun.

Then Jayson Tatum decided he had seen enough.

With 4:17 left in the first quarter and Milwaukee still ahead 27-15, Tatum buried a three. It was a small thing, one shot, but it lit the fuse on one of those runs that changes a whole game. Boston scored the next 18 points without reply, a stretch during which Milwaukee did not score for six and a half minutes, and every one of those 18 points came from Tatum or Paul George. By the time the second quarter was under way, the team that had trailed by 14 was in front, and it never looked back.

Tatum did the early damage, pouring in 16 of his 21 points in the first quarter, four of them from beyond the arc, and George took over from there. The veteran forward scored 16 in the second quarter alone on his way to a game-high 27 points on 11-of-18 shooting, five of them threes, and by half-time Boston led 58-45. The lead only grew after the break. Milwaukee missed its first seven shots of the third quarter, and when Tatum picked a pocket and slammed home the breakaway dunk, the gap stood at 74-49. The game was done, really, long before the fourth quarter began.

That is the part that will worry the rest of the East. Boston did not need a heroic night from anyone. Tatum shot 6-of-19 and still finished with 21 points and six assists. George was the efficient one, and when both stars sat — Tatum for the entire fourth quarter, George for most of it — Payton Pritchard stepped in and knocked down three more triples to keep the foot down. Mitchell Robinson added 12 points, seven rebounds and four steals in 18 minutes off the bench. It was a team win built on depth, defence and the simple fact that Boston now has too many ways to hurt you.

Kuzma, for his part, deserved better. He scored 21 of his 27 points in the first half, hit six of 13 from deep, and opened the game with 14 points in that blistering early burst. But once Boston's run started, Milwaukee had no second act. Tyler Herro added 13 points and gave his team a scare when he landed awkwardly on his right knee midway through the third, though he returned to the court a few minutes later. The Bucks have now lost six in a row and sit at 1-9, a rebuilding side learning hard lessons in public.

For Boston, this was a third straight win, an eighth in nine games, and a second victory over Milwaukee in four days after the 109-102 win at TD Garden on Wednesday. The Celtics are 8-2 and rolling. Next up is the game everyone will be talking about: a trip to Philadelphia on Tuesday to face the 76ers, where former Celtic Jaylen Brown now wears the home colours. George, too, will be facing his old team that night. If Sunday was any guide, Boston will arrive in a mood to spoil the reunion.