The top-2 teams in the Eastern Conference went head-to-head on Tuesday night, as the Boston Celtics traveled to Milwaukee to take on the Bucks. Despite the fact that Milwaukee entered the game on a 4-game losing streak, the Bucks were able to emphatically defend their homecourt, as they raced out to an early lead and never looked back en route to a 104-91 win that gives them a little breathing room in the race for the 2-seed in the conference.
The game also set a few bits of weird NBA history, and all of it revolves around the free throw line. With 19 seconds left in the first quarter, Giannis Antetokounmpo stepped up to the charity stripe and went 1-for-2. That marked the first, and last, free throws of the game, meaning the Celtics did not even attempt one all night, which has never happened before.
The Celtics are the first team in NBA history to shoot 0 free throws in a game. pic.twitter.com/8viHNu5UVf
— StatMuse (@statmuse) April 10, 2024
As you can guess, the fact that the teams combined to only shoot two free throws is also an NBA record, at least dating back to 1982-93. And not only is it a record, but they set this record by a whole lot.
While the Celtics don’t spend a ton of time shooting free throws — they entered the night tied for 22nd in the league in free throw attempts per game — the Bucks shoot the second-most free throws per game in the NBA. After tonight, those numbers will possibly go down.