BOSTON — Boston Celtics guard Jrue Holiday still loves the Milwaukee Bucks. He spent three seasons with them and even lifted his first Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy at Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee. Ironically, that love for the Bucks also fueled his competitive fire on Friday night, when the C's beat their midwestern foe 111-105 at TD Garden.
Just before the opening tip of the narrow win, Holiday joked around with Bucks center Brook Lopez. Despite this sign of friendship, Holiday was extremely eager to defeat his former squad and triumph over his old friends.
“I love him, it's great seeing him,” Holiday said of Lopez. “But every time I play him, and probably even more so because they like my brothers, I want to whoop their a** every time. And they know that too. They feel the same way about me.”
Holiday balanced kindness and ferocity with ease on Friday. After being chummy with Lopez, the Los Angeles native produced 20 points, six assists, five rebounds, one steal, and one block in 34 minutes of play.
“I just want to win,” he emphasized in his postgame press conference. “In between those lines, from when it's tipoff to the buzzer, I want to win.”
The two-time NBA champion did a great job of showing his hunger for a victory. Holiday's late-game floater with 26 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter put Boston in prime position to win. Although Bucks star Khris Middleton responded with three free throws to cut the Celtics' lead down to two, Holiday answered with two free throws of his own to seal the game with 15 seconds to go.
“I appreciate [the Bucks] pushing us,” he stated following the close contest. “I think that's what makes the game fun. I think that's kind of what makes us battle-tested for the future.”
Why Celtics-Bucks was a little spicier than usual
It wasn't all friendly between the C's and Bucks. Early in the third quarter, Celtics star Jaylen Brown got by Bucks franchise cornerstone Giannis Antetokounmpo for a layup. Brown made a gesture implying “The Greek Freak” was too small to guard him and seconds later the reigning NBA Finals MVP received a technical foul.
Brown and Antetokounmpo engaged in a war of words the last time they met as well, but no real fight resulted. Even so, the numerous technicals that have occurred in the previous matchups between the Celtics and Bucks reveal bad blood.
In fact, Friday's showdown felt especially chippy, yet the Green Team was all for that.
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“I think the refs kind of let us play,” Holiday told reporters. “Just the history between the two teams and it coming down to a tight game like that. Both teams are competitors, so when it comes down to it, we want to win the game just as much as anyone else. I think sometimes games are going to get chippy. And honestly, I think us as players, we like it.”
There is no shortage of recent history between the Celtics and Bucks. In 2018, the C's eliminated the Bucks in seven games in the first round of the playoffs. The next season, Antetokounmpo and company exacted revenge by crushing Boston in five games in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. However, the Celtics earned the last laugh because they prevailed in seven games versus the Bucks in the 2022 Eastern Conference Semifinals and, most importantly, are the reigning NBA champions.
As for the regular season, Boston's latest triumph over Milwaukee marked its first regular season sweep of the Bucks in more than a decade. The now 19-4 Celtics are just a game behind the first-place Cleveland Cavaliers while the Bucks fell to sixth place in the Eastern Conference and are back to .500 (11-11) on the season.
Even though Holiday hasn't faced his former team in the playoffs since being traded to Beantown in 2023, it's once again a real possibility. Both the Celtics and Bucks have the talent to reach the postseason and compete for a ring. If they do end up squaring off, it's safe to say that Holiday will have no problem torching his old pals on the court, as he knows they would like to do the very same to him.
