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Kyle Kuzma's 14 points in the opening five minutes were the most Milwaukee would get for free; Boston answered with an 18-0 run built by Tatum and George, then held the lead for 74 percent of the game in a 117-97 rout.
Tatum closes the first, George opens the second
For five minutes on Sunday the Bucks looked like the better team: Kuzma collected 14 of his 27 points in that stretch and Milwaukee led 20-6 early in the first quarter.
Jayson Tatum scored the final 10 points of the first quarter to cut the deficit to 27-25, a stretch that stopped Milwaukee from building a second run.
Paul George supplied the first eight points of the second quarter, and his three-pointer in the opening minute gave Boston its first lead at 28-27.
A layup and another three from George capped an 18-0 run that took Boston out of a 20-6 hole and into a lead they did not surrender again.
It was the second Boston game in five nights for Milwaukee: the Celtics won 109-102 on Wednesday in Boston with Tatum rested, and reached Milwaukee after opening a four-game trip with a 119-80 win at Charlotte on Friday.
The role players while Tatum sat
The third quarter settled it: a 9-0 start to the period made it 22 and the final score read 117-97.
Tatum finished with 21 points on 6-of-19 shooting, 5-of-11 from three and six assists, and spent the entire fourth quarter on the bench.
George led all starters with 27 points on 11-of-18 shooting, including 5-of-10 from distance, plus three rebounds, one assist and two steals for a plus-16 rating.
Payton Pritchard scored 12 points on 4-of-11 three-point shooting for a team-best plus-29, and Derrick White added nine points and seven assists.
Boston's frontcourt did the quiet work: Robinson was perfect from the field with four steals, and Queta filled a 13-point, nine-rebound line in 22 minutes.
Turner's three points and a career night elsewhere
Milwaukee fell to 1-9, a start that is the franchise's worst since 1993-94, when the Bucks lost 10 of their first 11 games and finished 20-62.
Kuzma led Milwaukee with 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting and 6-of-13 from three, adding four rebounds and two blocks in 31 minutes.
Turner finished with three points, five rebounds and seven assists, the last a career high, after going scoreless in Friday's NBA Cup loss to Toronto.
The team lines tell it: 47 percent shooting, 48 rebounds, 27 assists and 12 steals for Boston against 35-of-79 shooting and 15 turnovers for Milwaukee.
Notably, the Celtics move to 8-2 and are scheduled at Philadelphia on Tuesday night before finishing the trip in Toronto; the Bucks are also on the road in New York on Tuesday.
Editor's take: An 18-0 run that began with Tatum and ended with George is a two-man answer; turning a 20-6 lead into a 20-point loss is a team problem.
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