Jrue Holiday on playing against the Bucks: “I love beating them”

Celtics

Holiday spent three seasons with the Bucks and won one title. There is no problem, but he loves beating his former team.

Before Jrue Holiday became a Celtic, he was with the Milwaukee Bucks. He spent three seasons with the Bucks and won a title with them in 2021.

Holiday has played for four franchises over his 16-year NBA career. The Bucks and Celtics are the only ones he has championships with.

Holiday made four three-pointers in the Celtics’ opening win over the Knicks as Boston tied the NBA record for most three-pointers in a game. The Celtics split against the Bucks in 2020, and Holiday made the most three-pointers of any Bucks player in the record-setting game.

Holiday said he enjoyed beating his former team on Tuesday night but didn’t feel any additional emotions going into the game against Milwaukee.

“We already beat them,” Holiday said. “We beat them twice last year. I mean, I won a championship, so I love them all. They are like my brothers. No malice or insult or anything, but I love hitting them, just because who doesn’t love hitting others.”

The Celtics got off to a rough start shooting the ball Monday night, missing their first seven shots of the game. Al Horford hit a shot from Giannis Antetokounmpo, which led to a layup from Derrick White for Boston’s first score.

The Celtics, fueled by a game-high 30 points from Jaylen Brown and a franchise-record eight three-pointers off the bench by Payton Pritchard, finally found their shooting range.

Holiday scored 21 points on 7-12 shooting. He said creating chaos on defense helped the Celtics get their offense in order.

“It gives us a chance to figure things out,” Holiday said. “Even though we feel like we might not be playing well or playing together, I think going out there, playing hard and creating chaos at times brings you closer, and I feel like that’s exactly what happened. Towards the end we increased our lead.”

The Celtics have won four games in a row to start the season. Holiday said the team’s confidence and calm attitude were a plus.

“I feel like it’s just in us,” Holiday said of the team’s confidence. “For the most part, we are like that personally, maybe in our personal lives too. I don’t think anything outside of basketball really shakes us, so let’s apply that to basketball. We’re pretty calm and collected.”

Khari A. Thompson

Sports reporter

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Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.

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