Celtics Beat Bucks 109-102 After Milwaukee Erases 22-Point Lead

BOSTON — The Celtics Bucks game on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, turned into a fourth-quarter fight after Milwaukee wiped out a 22-point deficit. Derrick White scored seven of Boston’s final 12 points, and the Boston Celtics beat the Milwaukee Bucks 109-102 at TD Garden to improve to 6-2 and 5-0 at home.

The win came two nights after the 109-93 loss at Houston that ended Boston’s five-game winning streak. Milwaukee fell to 1-7 overall and 0-4 on the road, and the loss was its fourth in a row, according to ESPN’s standings. A crowd of 19,156 attended.

How the Bucks erased a 22-point Celtics lead

Boston controlled the first half. The Celtics won the first quarter 28-14 and pushed the lead to 51-29 with 4:12 left in the second quarter, their biggest margin of the night, according to ESPN’s play-by-play. They took a 62-41 lead into halftime.

Milwaukee answered with a 38-point third quarter. Tyler Herro scored 17 points in the period, and the Bucks made a string of 3-pointers from Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kyle Kuzma, Myles Turner and Herro to cut the deficit to 87-79 after three quarters. Hugo Gonzalez was called for a flopping technical early in the quarter, and Herro made the free throw.

Ryan Rollins and Nate Ament opened the fourth with back-to-back 3-pointers. Ament’s running layup tied the game at 91 with 7:51 to play, and his free throw 61 seconds later gave Milwaukee its first lead, 92-91. Brayden Burries hit a floater for a 96-95 Bucks lead with 5:08 left, and Kuzma’s free throw made it 97-97 at the 4:04 mark.

Derrick White and Paul George close it for Boston

From that 97-97 tie, Boston outscored Milwaukee 12-5. Neemias Queta scored on a layup off a Paul George pass with 3:06 left. White followed with a layup and a free throw for a three-point play at 2:22, then hit a floater with 1:49 left for a 104-97 lead. George’s step-back 3-pointer with 1:23 left made it 107-99, and White’s two free throws with 19.8 seconds left closed the scoring.

White finished with 24 points, seven assists, four rebounds and two blocks. He shot 7 of 18 from the field and made all nine of his free throws. George tied Herro for the game high with 25 points, hitting 5 of 9 from 3-point range, and added five assists and four steals, though he also committed six of Boston’s 12 turnovers.

Queta had nine points, 12 rebounds and two blocks as a starter. Off the bench, Luka Garza scored 11 points on 3-of-4 shooting from deep, Payton Pritchard scored 10 with five assists, Mitchell Robinson grabbed 10 rebounds and Baylor Scheierman added nine points and 11 rebounds. Scheierman’s plus-11 was the best on either team.

Boston played without Jayson Tatum, whom ESPN’s injury report listed as out for rest, and Devin Carter, listed as out with an illness. Pritchard was listed as day-to-day with a right eye abrasion. Milwaukee was without Kam Jones because of an ankle injury.

For Milwaukee, Jaquez scored 18 points, Rollins had 13 points, nine rebounds and five assists, and Turner added 12 points, nine rebounds and six assists while making 4 of 6 from 3-point range.

By the numbers: rebounds and free throws decided it

The teams shot almost identically. Boston made 40.7 percent of its field goals (37 of 91) and Milwaukee made 41.2 percent (35 of 85). The Bucks made three more 3-pointers, 19 to 16, on eight more attempts, according to the ESPN box score.

Boston made up the gap with extra chances. The Celtics grabbed 19 offensive rebounds to Milwaukee’s 11 and won the overall rebounding battle by nine. That helped them take six more field-goal attempts than the Bucks. They also made 19 of 25 free throws (76.0 percent) to Milwaukee’s 13 of 19 (68.4 percent), a six-point edge at the line that nearly matches the seven-point final margin, by TBR calculations from the box score. Milwaukee committed 15 turnovers, including one team turnover.

The quarter-by-quarter split shows how the game flipped. Boston outscored Milwaukee by 21 points in the first half, then lost the second half 61-47.

Boston’s starters outscored Milwaukee’s 73-70, and the Celtics’ bench outscored the Bucks’ reserves 36-32 (TBR calculations). Through eight games, the Celtics have scored 914 points (114.3 a game) and allowed 866 (108.3), a plus-48 margin, by TBR’s count from ESPN’s results.

What’s next for the Celtics and Bucks

The Celtics visit the Charlotte Hornets on Friday, Nov. 6, at 7 p.m. ET, then play at Milwaukee on Sunday, Nov. 8, at 8 p.m. ET, the second of three regular-season meetings between the teams. The Bucks host Toronto on Friday. Our Celtics vs. Bucks preview has more on the matchup, and the full slate is on The Boston Report’s Celtics schedule page.

Sources

• ESPN: Bucks vs. Celtics box score, Nov. 4, 2026
• ESPN: Bucks vs. Celtics play-by-play, Nov. 4, 2026
• ESPN: Bucks vs. Celtics game summary and injury report
• ESPN: Boston Celtics 2026-27 schedule and results

Additional sources

• ESPN: NBA standings
• ESPN: Milwaukee Bucks 2026-27 schedule
• Wikimedia Commons: Derrick White featured photo (file photo, CC BY-SA 4.0)