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The Boston Celtics held a 93-79 lead over the Milwaukee Bucks after a Payton Pritchard bucket with 10:16 remaining in Wednesday's Game 5. After a big comeback win on the road in Game 4, it looked like the Celtics were about to cruise their way to a 3-2 series lead to sit on the doorstep of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Instead, Boston suffered a collapse that brought back bad memories of the beginning of the season. The Celtics got outscored 31-14 the rest of the way, resulting in a devastating 110-107 loss that now has them on the brink of elimination as the series shifts back to Milwaukee.
The defending champion Bucks deserve a lot of credit for their comeback, showcasing their championship mettle in the process. However, a big blown lead like this also comes with blame to go around.
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Celtics to blame for Game 5 collapse vs. Bucks
Marcus Smart
Marcus Smart is the heart and soul of the Celtics, and he deserves a lot of credit for playing through pain in this series. He also had a good game through three quarters, pouring in 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting and 3-of-5 from 3-point range.
Unfortunately, the fourth quarter was a total disaster for the Defensive Player of the Year. Smart scored zero points and missed his lone shot attempt, which was Jrue Holiday's epic block with Boston down one in the final seconds. Smart also committed two turnovers, with one of those being Holiday's game-clinching steal. Poor Jayson Tatum:
Here's the bigger picture since the original screengrab was from a vertical video pic.twitter.com/B6nb9fsjlM
— William Lou (@william_lou) May 12, 2022
Smart was also involved with the flubbed rebound attempt that gave Bobby Portis the opportunity for the game-winning basket:
BIG BUCKET BY BOBBY!! pic.twitter.com/GImsaKV1bP
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) May 12, 2022
That brings us to the next player on the list.
Jaylen Brown was also in the mix for that rebound after the Giannis Antetokounmpo miss at the foul line, but he and Smart ran into each other as the ball popped free. That play wasn't as much on Brown as it was on Smart (and a bit of bad luck), but the Celtics star certainly didn't have himself a fourth quarter to remember.
This was especially unfortunate given Brown dominated the third quarter. While Giannis was doing his best to keep the Bucks in it with 13 third-quarter points, Brown bested him with 16 points in the frame to give the Celtics a nine-point lead heading to the fourth quarter.
Sadly, Brown managed just a single point in the final frame, missing both field goal attempts and also missing one of his two free throws. He also committed one of Boston's five turnovers in the quarter, which led to 10 Milwaukee points.
Brown finished with 26 points, eight rebounds and six assists. That's a damn good game, but he was invisible when it mattered most.
Robert Williams' recent knee injury meant Grant Williams taking his place in the starting lineup, and things haven't gone well for the latter Williams since. He was a minus-17 as a starter in Game 4 despite the Celtics winning and a minus-11 in 31 minutes in Game 5. He didn't score a single point and obviously didn't do much to slow down Giannis, who put up another 40-burger.
In the fourth quarter, Williams committed two fouls and one turnover in 6:04 of action. Those were the only stats he recorded as he was a minus-10 in those minutes. Boston needs him to get back to his elite 3-and-D ways in order to pull off a comeback in this series.
