An 18-0 run erases Kuzma's 14-point five minutes
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Kyle Kuzma's 14 points in the opening five minutes were the most Milwaukee would get for free; Boston answered with an 18-0 run built by Tatum and George, then held the lead for 74 percent of the game in a 117-97 rout.
A 20-6 start and an 18-0 answer
For five minutes on Sunday the Bucks looked like the better team: Kuzma collected 14 of his 27 points in that stretch and Milwaukee led 20-6 early in the first quarter.
Jayson Tatum scored the final 10 points of the first quarter to cut the deficit to 27-25, a stretch that stopped Milwaukee from building a second run.
George opened the second period with eight straight points; the first of his two threes in that spell put Boston ahead 28-27 and the game turned there.
Notably, the pattern was already set four days earlier, when Boston won 109-102 without playing Tatum, and the Celtics arrived in Milwaukee off a 39-point win at Charlotte.
The 18-0 finished with a George layup and one more three, and Milwaukee went from 14 points up inside five minutes to trailing before halftime.
Twenty-two points and a bench fourth quarter
Boston led 58-45 at halftime and opened the third quarter with nine straight points to push the margin to 22, after which the Celtics were never ahead by fewer than 15 points.
Tatum finished with 21 points on 6-of-19 shooting, 5-of-11 from three and six assists, and spent the entire fourth quarter on the bench.
George led all starters with 27 points on 11-of-18 shooting, including 5-of-10 from distance, plus three rebounds, one assist and two steals for a plus-16 rating.
In the wider picture, the bench carried the margin: Pritchard was plus-29 with 12 points in 29 minutes, and White had seven of Boston's 27 assists.
Boston's frontcourt did the quiet work: Robinson was perfect from the field with four steals, and Queta filled a 13-point, nine-rebound line in 22 minutes.
Turner's three points and a career night elsewhere
At 1-9 the Bucks are in territory they have not occupied since 1993-94, when a 10-loss opening stretch preceded a 20-62 season.
Kuzma's 27 points were the only sustained offense the Bucks could name, delivered on 6-of-13 from the arc after his fast start.
In addition, Myles Turner scored three points on 1-of-8 shooting with five rebounds and a career-high seven assists, and has shot 1-of-15 across his last two games.
Boston shot 45-of-95 for 47 percent and 18-of-48 from three, outrebounded Milwaukee 48 to 36, recorded 12 steals and turned 15 Bucks turnovers into 11 points.
The Celtics move to 8-2 and are scheduled at Philadelphia on Tuesday night before finishing the trip in Toronto; the Bucks are also on the road in New York on Tuesday.
Editor's take: Milwaukee's 20-6 start is the number that should bother its staff most: leads like that are not lost by accident, they are lost possession by possession.
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