Bucks GM Jon Horst on Game 3: ‘That wasn’t a quality playoff basketball game,

Following the Bucks’ 103-101 victory in Game 3, the Celtics were unhappy with the game’s officials.

They believed Bucks guard Jrue Holiday fouled Celtics guard Marcus Smart on a 3-point attempt with 4.6 seconds remaining and that Smart deserved three free throws. Smart and head coach Ime Udoka passionately argued their position on the court, but the officials disagreed and instead awarded him just two. Ultimately, Smart perfectly executed the Celtics’ game plan to make the first and miss the second to give the Celtics a chance to tie the score, but their efforts failed and the Bucks closed out with a win. After the game, the Celtics continued to plead their case.

“He caught the ball, he was turning into his shot, both feet set. You can’t say that was a sweep. You’re going into a shot,” Udoka said. “Poor call, poor no-call. I saw it in person, but also just saw it on film. It’s a shot. Curling into a shot, he’s getting fouled on the way up. Bad missed call.”

On Sunday, the league released its last two-minute officiating report for Game 3 and listed the foul as a confirmed correct call, adding, “Holiday (MIL) commits a foul by making contact with Smart’s (BOS) arms before he is bringing the ball upward toward the basket. A personal foul is correctly called.”

While the final sequence drew most of the attention, it didn’t sound like Boston’s only gripe with the Game 3 officiating. During his postgame media availability, Udoka referenced the highly physical nature of Saturday’s game and his belief that he should be the one complaining to officials, not his players.

“If they’re going to call it that way, consistently on both ends, we got to play through it and not bitch about calls and get back,” Udoka said.

The game’s ever-present physicality was a topic in the Bucks’ media room following Game 3 as well, but neither Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer nor Giannis Antetokounmpo decided to push the topic of officiating when given the opportunity by reporters. Holiday, however, chose a different tactic when asked about Antetokounmpo’s ability to score 42 points efficiently while consistently playing through contact.

“It’s what he does, to be completely honest,” Holiday said. “We didn’t have but half of their free throws, but it was a pretty physical game. I don’t know. Two aggressive teams, two teams that love to sit down and play defense. I imagine it’s gonna be like that for the rest of the series.”

And apparently, Holiday was not alone in that feeling.

The Bucks, as an organization, were not pleased about several things regarding officiating in Game 3, including the disparity in free-throw attempts — 34 for Boston, 17 for Milwaukee — and the Celtics attempting 17 free throws in the final 16:33 of the game (11 times in the fourth quarter), while the Bucks did not attempt a single free throw during that same time period.

“I mean this sincerely: I do respect that, at the end of the day, it is a hard job, right? I couldn’t do their job. You couldn’t do their job,” Bucks general manager Jon Horst said Sunday evening in an exclusive interview with The Athletic. “Officiating is…