Celtics have been bullies in the fourth quarter against Bucks

BOSTON -- To say that the Celtics dominated the fourth quarter of their Game 4 victory is selling Boston's performance short. The Celtics put together a nearly perfect 12 minutes of basketball in the win, flirting with team history in the process.

Boston trailed Milwaukee by seven points heading into the fourth on Monday night. Facing a 3-1 series deficit if they didn't get their act together, the Celtics went out and took complete control of the game. They barely missed, shooting 16-for-19 from the field and 4-for-5 from three-point range. The Celtics shot an absurd 84.2 percent in the quarter. They also went 7-for-7 from the free throw line for good measure.

The ball movement was at its finest in the fourth, as Boston dished out nine assists on those 16 made baskets. The Celtics outscored the Bucks 43-28 in their best offensive quarter of the season, with those 43 points tied for the second-most points in a quarter in Celtics postseason history.

As the Bucks started to fade after having to deal with a bruising Boston defense for three quarters, the Celtics turned on their thrusters. The result was a thrilling 116-108 victory to knot the series at 2-2. All the momentum is now on the Celtics' side with the series shifting back to Boston on Wednesday night.

Ageless wonder Al Horford was the main catalyst of Boston's fourth-quarter explosion, scoring 16 of his postseason career-best 30 points in the final frame. He hit all six of his shots from the field, and was a perfect 2-for-2 from the free throw line. Al simply couldn't miss in the quarter, as he banged home a couple of threes in clutch moments and exacted some revenge on Giannis Antetokounmpo by throwing down a monstrous dunk right in his face with 10 minutes left. That jam changed the complexion of the game and, for now, the series.

Jayson Tatum also woke up in a big way in the fourth, scoring 12 of his 30 points in the frame. He was 5-for-6 in the quarter, scoring 10 straight points for Boston over a two-minute span. Marcus Smart was 4-for-5 to close out the game, adding nine fourth-quarter points.

Derrick White played the entire fourth as Ime Udoka masterfully went with smaller lineups to run laps around the Bucks. Udoka benched the struggling Grant Williams and Daniel Theis, and went with a lineup of White, Smart, Jaylen Brown, Tatum and Horford. That group raced to a 15-2 run midway through the quarter to swipe the win from the Bucks. Milwaukee's big guys, Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez, had no gas left to keep up with Boston's breakneck speed.

The Celtics were their own worst enemy for large stretches of the first three quarters, coughing the ball up 10 times that led to 15 Bucks points. Boston committed just one turnover in the fourth, limiting any transition opportunities and easy looks for the Bucks.

Boston did much of its fourth-quarter damage around the rim. Their only two misses from inside the arc were a missed layup by Smart and a Tatum 13-footer that came up short.

"You get on your hot streaks and a lot of them are great looks, wide-open shots," Udoka said of his team's efficiency in the fourth. "We talked about multiple paint touches and their defense will dissipate and we got those wide-open looks. The other piece was getting stops and get running in transition. We got some easy baskets as well."

Udoka said his team was ready when the Bucks showed signs of fading. As soon as they smelled blood in the water, the Celtics pounced by upping the tempo.

"That was a time we really increased touching the paint as much as we could and getting favorable matchups," he said. "Having them in scramble mode got us a lot of wide-open shots."

The Celtics have been the better fourth-quarter team in three of the four games this series. After the Bucks outscored the Celtics 23-19 in Game 1, Boston has now outscored Milwaukee 103-71 over the last three games. The Celtics seem to be saving their best for last in this series. They're making the Bucks work for everything, and by the fourth quarter, Milwaukee is out of gas and running on fumes.

"We just went and left it all on the court tonight," Smart said after Monday's win. "We were playing not up to our standards. We have been playing that way the whole series, but we've been in every game and for us, it's just finishing those plays when we get in those spots. We've been there plenty of times. Just go and take it. That's what we did tonight."