The Boston Celtics will look to maintain the NBA’s best record Sunday when they host the Milwaukee Bucks for the first time since last season’s Eastern Conference semifinals.
Boston got back on the winning track with Friday’s 121-109 win over Minnesota in which Jaylen Brown (36) and Jayson Tatum (30) combined for 66 points.
The Celtics had lost three straight and five of their previous six games, going without a home win since Nov. 30 prior to beating the Timberwolves on Friday.
Both members of the star duo scored 30 points in the same game for the 17th time in their careers on Friday, allowing them to pass Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen for the third-most such games since 1985.
Brown scored 23 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter to match Minnesota’s entire team total and mark the highest-scoring period of his career.
The Celtics will look to keep their foot on the gas against a Milwaukee club that dropped its second straight game 118-100 on Friday at Brooklyn.
Finishing off the win over Minnesota could be exactly the turning point that the Celtics needed.
Boston has played on seven straight Christmases and will be hosting the holiday game for the fifth time ever.
The Celtics enter at 23-10, just a half-game ahead of the Bucks (22-10) for the East’s best record.
The Bucks, who have lost back-to-back games just twice this season, have not crossed the 50-point threshold in the first half of their last three setbacks.
They are just 7-5 in December, having scored 112 or fewer points in seven of those games.
Antetokounmpo (26 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists and two steals) took a hard fall on a foul in the third quarter of Friday’s loss to the Nets, but the X-ray of his right hand came back clean.
Brook Lopez scored 23 points. Eighteen turnovers were the Bucks’ downfall against Brooklyn, as they led to 24 Nets points.
The Bucks appear to have dodged a bullet in terms of a significant injury to Antetokounmpo, but Khris Middleton did miss his fourth straight game due to knee soreness.
