MILWAUKEE — Over the past few weeks, the Celtics have struck a balance between aggressively pursuing wins and staying healthy. They did it again Tuesday against the Bucks, when big men Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford both sat out.
But the teams behind them in the Eastern Conference have no such luxury, with the congested standings requiring them to push until the end. And with one bad step late in the third quarter of his team’s 104-91 win Tuesday, Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo may have significantly altered the NBA playoff picture.
After Celtics guard Derrick White hit a 3-pointer with 3:46 left in the third quarter that pulled Boston within 78-67, Antetokounmpo began to jog upcourt before he suddenly fell to the ground in pain.
He was helped up by teammates before his leg buckled, causing the crowd to audibly gasp. With assistance, Antetokounmpo headed to the locker room before being ruled out with a left calf strain.
After the game, Bucks coach Doc Rivers said that his level of concern was “high,” and that Antetokounmpo would undergo an MRI.
Celtics point guard Jrue Holiday, who was Antetokounmpo’s teammate for three seasons with the Bucks before joining the Celtics this year, said he was unable to talk to Antetokounmpo before he left the arena, but planned to check on him.
“It’s always scary when you’re by yourself and you go down,” Holiday said. “There was no contact or anything.”
Antetokounmpo’s injury aside, it was not an encouraging night for the Celtics, whose five-game winning streak was snapped. They lost by 33 points when they played here in January, and they trailed by as many as 24 points Tuesday, with the Bucks pushing back their mild runs.
The Celtics did not appear particularly fazed by the defeat or their season-low point total, however. The locker room mood was essentially the same as always. Star forward Jayson Tatum pulled out his cellphone and ordered a post-game meal for himself and some teammates for the flight home.
The players said their comeback attempts mostly stalled because they just happened to miss some wide-open looks. Of course, they were also missing two of their six best players.
“I think a lot of the time the lid was on the rim for us,” Holiday said. “We feel like we had a lot of energy when we were even down 20, but it felt like we’re only down 5. We feel like if we would have hit a couple shots, we could have broken the game open and gotten back into it.”
The Bucks’ playoff chances will take a seismic hit if Antetokounmpo is sidelined for an extended period. But if he is healthy, despite their mercurial season, they would pose as much of a challenge for the Celtics as anyone else in the conference.
Their recent four-game skid put them in danger of slipping to fourth in the East, which would position them to potentially face Boston in the second round rather than the conference finals.
But this win made that prospect unlikely, with the Bucks now holding a one-game lead over the third-place Knicks and a two-game lead over the Magic and Cavaliers, who are tied for fourth, with just three remaining.
Tuesday’s game was a statistical anomaly. The Celtics became the first team in NBA history not to attempt a free throw in a game, and the Bucks were whistled for a record-low four fouls. There was not some startling disparity, however. The Bucks took just two free throws, and the Celtics committed just eight fouls.
Mazzulla said he “didn’t know what was going on” with the lack of foul calls. Tatum suggested that perhaps the officials were preparing for the postseason, when more contact tends to be allowed.
“Another day in the NBA,” he said with a bit of a smirk.
Nevertheless, the Celtics made it through the night unscathed, which is probably their biggest win. Tatum had 22 points and Jaylen Brown added 14 after going 0 for 6 from the 3-point line. The Celtics shot just 39.8 percent from the field.
Patrick Beverley, who was inserted into the starting lineup by Rivers in an attempt to give this reeling Bucks squad a jolt, had 20 points and nine rebounds. Milwaukee (48-31) shot 53.1 percent from the field and 47.2 percent from the 3-point line, sparked by Brook Lopez’s 4 for 4 start from beyond the arc that staked his team to the early lead it never relinquished.
The Bucks started 8 for 10 from behind the arc and at one point converted eight shots in a row, helping them to a 36-17 lead. Boston’s offense, meanwhile, was more disjointed. The Celtics were 8 for 26 from the field in the opening quarter, with Tatum and Brown a combined 2 for 11.
“[We were] waiting too long to get into our spacing, too many shots at the end of the shot clock,” Mazzulla said. “Just got to get into it quicker.”
The Bucks took a 47-23 lead, their largest, on a running dunk by Bobby Portis with 8:04 left in the second quarter. But the Celtics steadied themselves and gradually chipped away in the third quarter before Antetokounmpo’s departure opened a path for a more sustained run.
After sitting his starters for most of the fourth quarter the previous two games, Mazzulla put Tatum and Brown back on the court to start the fourth with the Celtics trailing, 78-67. But Milwaukee went on a 7-0 run to start the quarter, and with just over six minutes left, Mazzulla pulled his two stars for the night
“Playing them again, you don’t want to see yourself down 20 at halftime,” Tatum said. “It’s a bad recipe for trying to compete against them. But we fought hard. We came back. Just didn’t have enough.”
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.