The Boston Celtics’ postseason journey begins on the road in Cleveland on Sunday – and that may not necessarily be a bad thing.
Even before Boston’s 105-100 win at Milwaukee on Wednesday, the Celtics had established themselves as one of the hottest road teams in the NBA.
With the win over Milwaukee, Boston (40-42) has now won seven straight road games.
“That’s a pretty good record,” said Boston’s Jonas Jerebko. “We’re just coming out competing every night; playing good basketball. We’re playing together. We’re winning games.”
Especially when those games are on the road and are the second of a back-to-back set.
“We tried to make it an emphasis,” said Celtics head coach Brad Stevens. “I didn’t realize making it an emphasis, we’d be so good. Maybe we should try and emphasize some other things.
Stevens added, “But I’m really happy with the resiliency and the grit of this team through everything in the regular season.”
Boston Celtics
Up next?
Games 1 on the road at Cleveland.
“Now the toughest task is ahead,” Stevens said.
Here are the Stars, Studs and Duds from Wednesday night’s game.
STARS
Gigi Datome
Like so many other Celtics this season, Datome made the most of his opportunity to play major minutes. Making his first NBA start on Wednesday, Datome had a career-high 22 points on 9-for-15 shooting while playing more than 27 minutes.
STUDS
Ersan Ilyasova
He’s thin as a rail, but has the ability to score around the basket as well as from 3-point range. He led all Bucks with 21 points on 8-for-13 shooting.
Jonas Jerebko
Jerebko played the high-energy role perfectly on Wednesday to finish with 16 points on 7-for-13 shooting, along with six rebounds, four assists and two steals.
O.J. Mayo
He almost single-handedly brought the Bucks back in the fourth quarter, which is when he scored 12 of his i16 points off the Milwaukee bench.
Kelly Olynyk
He was extremely efficient, scoring 16 points on 5-for-8 shooting which included him connecting on four of his five 3-pointers.
DUDS
Free throws
Thankfully for the Celtics this game was not going to come down to free throws to decide a winner. Boston shot 57.1 percent from the line in connecting with eight of their 14 attempts.