4 takeaways as Celtics crush Bucks to inch closer to No. 2 seed

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4 takeaways as Celtics crush Bucks to inch closer to No. 2 seed

Brian Robb · MassLive

Sat, Apr 4, 2026 ·

4 min read

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The Celtics ended their road trip on a high note Friday night, crushing the Bucks 133-101 for their second straight win to close out a 3-1 road trip.

Boston built a double-digit lead early in Milwaukee after putting up 43 points in the first quarter and did not look back from there. The Celtics led by as many as 35 points in the second half in a dominant effort by the team's starting five against an undermanned and tanking Bucks squad.

Jaylen Brown led six players in double figures for Boston including all five starters, with 26 points. Jayson Tatum finished one assist shy of his second straight triple-double with 23 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists in 31 minutes. Neemias Queta also added a double-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks.

Taurean Prince finished with a team-high 18 points for the Bucks, who dropped their second straight game overall.

Boston improved to 52-25 on the season with the victory and maintained a two-game edge over the Knicks for the No. 2 seed with just five regular season games remaining.

The Celtics now head home to TD Garden, where they will play four of their final five games of the season, beginning with the Raptors on Sunday afternoon.

Here are four takeaways from the Celtics' win on Friday night:

Celtics put on another first quarter show:One game after posting 53 points in the opening frame against the Heat in their highest-scoring first quarter in franchise history, Boston put together quite the encore on Friday night. The visitors piled up 43 points in the opening period against a putrid Bucks defense, shooting 60 percent from the field and 66.7 percent (8-of-12) from 3-point range in the frame. Neemias Queta led the way with 13 points in the period, while Boston's starters combined to score all 43 points in a dominant period for Boston, spotting themselves a 17-point lead after 12 minutes.

Playoff rotation is starting to come into focus:With the calendar turned to April, Joe Mazzulla is starting to give a glimpse of how he might handle this roster when it's at full strength. Nikola Vucevic (broken finger) remains sidelined, but Mazzulla opted to play essentially eight players for the first three quarters of this game, despite the lopsided margin of victory. Baylor Scheierman was once again the top wing off the bench, while Jordan Walsh just got a cameo in the second quarter for a minute before Mazzulla turned back to his starters. Vucevic may end up stealing some or all of Luka Garza 's minutes when he returns but Mazzulla is ramping up his two stars workload to build a rhythm for this group ahead of a long playoff run.

Jayson Tatum shows off his passing gene:Fresh off his first triple-double of the season, Tatum carved up the Bucks defense with the pass, dishing out nine assists in just three quarters. He drew plenty of extra attention from Bucks defenders all night, paving the way for easy looks for enemies Queta at the rim in the pick-and-roll and off dribble penetration. Tatum now has 28 assists in his last three games and just four turnovers.

Sam Hauser remains red-hot:The starting small forward hit his first five shots of the game, finishing 3-of-4 from the 3-point line to help fuel a dominant night from the starting five. Hauser is now 7-of-10 from 3-point range in his last two games and hasn't missed a 2-point shot in that stretch, shooting 88.2 percent from the field overall despite having 17 shot attempts in that stretch. He's now up to 38.9 percent shooting from 3-point range on the season and is playing some of the best basketball of his season right now.

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