Boston Celtics: 3 takeaways from season-ending Game 5 loss vs. Bucks

2. The Celtics were uncharacteristically cold

It wasn’t just Irving that couldn’t find the bottom of the net during the second round series. The Celtics as a team put together the lowest true shooting percentage among second round teams at just 52.8 percent.

Boston looked impressive against the Bucks in Game 1, when Mike Budenholzer was more willing to drop his bigs and allow the Celtics easy looks at the perimeter. However, after one loss, Boston’s worst tendencies from the regular season came out, as they resorted more heavily to isolation sets.

In Game 5, Irving looked to shoot himself hot. It didn’t work. Kyrie missed out on noticing open shooters when he pulled multiple defenders on his drives, and the pick-and-pop that was so deadly in Game 1 was missing in action during the next four games of the series.

Jayson Tatum saw his offense dwindle in the second round as well. It took him until the final frame of Game 4 to finally make a 3-pointer, and he shot just 12.5 percent from deep in the series. In fact, only Marcus Morris and Al Horford shot above 40 percent from the 3-point line in the series.

Much of the Celtics’ offensive woes was caused by Milwaukees stifling defense and length. After Game 1, Budenholzer opted to switch his defenders off of ball screens rather than employ such a dramatic drop-coverage. Pitting the smaller primary ball-handlers of Irving and Rozier against the length of Brook Lopez and Nikola Mirotic effectively clogged passing lanes and forced the Celtics to settle for jump shots.