Bradley on late-game foul vs. Bucks: It didn’t cost us the game
Avery Bradley is one of the most aggressive on-ball defenders in the NBA, and that instinctive nature came back to bite him on Tuesday night.
After rallying from a 19-point fourth quarter deficit in Milwaukee, the Celtics had a chance to send the game to overtime if they could keep the Bucks off the scoreboard in the game’s final second. Instead, Bradley over-helped on an inbounds play to Kris Middleton and was whistled for a reaching in with 0.6 seconds on the clock. Middleton made one of two free throws, and the Bucks escaped with a 112-111 win.
“He just fouled him,’’ Brad Stevens told reporters after the game. “I thought we had it well covered. It’s just one of those things.’’
Before his mistake, Bradley was a crucial component of Boston’s late-game comeback, posting a team-high +22 in the defeat as the Celtics almost overcame a sloppy third quarter in which they allowed the Bucks to post 40 points.
The six-year veteran pointed to the team’s issues in that frame as the real reason behind the team’s defeat, rather than just his own miscue.
“I think I was just a little too aggressive,’’ Bradley acknowledged when asked about his foul. “Me personally, I don’t think it’s that one play that determined the game.’’
Stevens agreed with Bradley’s assessment in his postgame presser, failing to cast blame on the 25-year-old for Boston’s four-game winning streak coming to an end.
“I just said to everybody in the (locker) room, listen,’’ Stevens told reporters. “We got beat at the end of the second, the whole third quarter, the start of the fourth. That’s where we lost that game. And we’ve got a game tomorrow. You’ve got to be able to bounce back. [Bradley’s] a tough-minded kid. He’ll be all right.’’
Stevens’ attitude appeared to be the prevailing mindset in the Celtics locker room, especially after Bradley’s late-game heroics against the Cavaliers last Friday night.
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Bradley and the Celtics will have to turn the page quickly with Paul Pierce, Doc Rivers and the Los Angeles Clippers in town Wednesday night for the team’s final contest before the All-Star break.
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