It’s been a while since the Celtics played a tough, competitive game against a solid opponent. They’ve had close games, but hardly well-played close games.

“Well-played” may be bit of a reach to describe this one, but it was competitive Tuesday night in Milwaukee as the Celtics and Bucks played a back-and-forth affair with neither team able to establish much of an advantage. The Bucks escaped with an 86-84 win (click here for a full recap), but for the first time in a while, the Celtics' loss can’t be pinned on lack of effort or focus.

Milwaukee just made a few more plays than the Celtics did. Doc Rivers calls them 50-50 plays. Hustle plays, offensive rebounds, loose balls. In Rivers estimation, the Bucks got more of those than the Celtics, and that probably was the difference. Well, that and Andrew Bogut (more on him later).

With the C's down by two points on the final possession, Paul Pierce wound up shooting a contested jumper that hit iron. It wasn’t the most elegant last-second play, but they put the ball in the hands of their best one-on-one player and he took a shot that he likes, so they’ll take their chances and live with the outcome.

The Celtics' four-game winning streak is over and they have another game Wednesday night back home in Boston against Memphis. It was written in this space two weeks ago that this stretch of games was going to be about maintaining focus and coming to play every night rather than wins and losses.

“We came to play hard,” Rivers said to reporters in Milwaukee. “We did that. We just didn’t play well.”

It happens and that makes this loss easier to digest. The Celtics still have not atoned for the New Jersey loss, but the signs of progress are still there.

With that in mind, here are our three things:

THE NEXT GREAT CENTER?

Back in late December, Kendrick Perkins was beginning to build some momentum toward a possible All-Star berth. The thinking went that after Dwight Howard there was a large group of centers in the Eastern Conference who might emerge for a spot. None of them were great, but all of them could play.

In addition to Perkins, there was Al Horford, David Lee, Joakim Noah, Andrew Bogut and Brook Lopez. Horford and Lee wound up getting the nods, and deservedly so, but Perkins was still drawing praise for his defense. It is now an accepted article of faith in the NBA that no one plays Howard better than Perkins, and that will win Perk some votes for the All-Defensive team.

The Celtics don’t like to double-team the post very often, and Perkins’ individual defense generally allows them to get away with that strategy. It’s a big part of the reason why they always play the Magic tough. 

But against Bogut it was a different story. Perkins’ greatest strength is his strength. Raw and powerful, he has the body to play anyone 1-on-1 in the post and not get embarrassed, but take him out a few feet and add in the ambidextrous abilities of Bogut to shoot quick hooks with both hands, and Perkins’ strength is nullified.

Bogut finished with 25 points and 17 rebounds and he probably could have had even more if Milwaukee has simply given up their high-post game and let him go to work on the block. He was simply too quick, and too skilled, for Perkins to handle.

“Bogut killed us,” Rivers said rather succinctly.

In his fifth season in the NBA, he is beginning to become the player that he was expected to become when Milwaukee made him the No. 1 overall pick, ahead of Chris Paul and Deron Williams. Health has always been Bogut’s biggest obstacle and he has missed only six games this season. 

If he continues at this pace, there won’t be much of a debate next season about the All-Star team.

WHAT TO DO WITH MICHAEL FINLEY

The Celtics newest acquisition was in uniform for the first time Tuesday night. He made his first shot, a 17-footer, and he also drained a 3-pointer giving him five points in about eight minutes of action.

With Finley active, Brian Scalabrine was not. It’s possible Tony Allen won’t be active Wednesday against the Grizzlies. Allen didn’t play against the Bucks and he has had a hip issue. Rivers sounds like he’s open to rotating that inactive spot around between the three of them.

Either way, there doesn’t seem to be much of a rush to integrate Finley into the lineup.

“Coach was very honest with me, which I respect, that he doesn’t know how he’s going to use me,” Finley said Sunday night when he met the Boston press. “I’m coming into a situation where the team is already established. Coach has put me in a situation at ease, where he doesn’t know, I don’t know, just go out and play hard and do what I can to make the team a better one. I think I am able to do that.”

Reading that quote back, it sounds almost surreal for a player with Finley’s pedigree to be so casual about not having any idea what to expect, but he honestly doesn’t and he honestly sounds like it doesn’t bother him.

In the best-case scenario, Finley becomes a jump-shooting wing player that the Celtics lacked. In the worst-case scenario, he’s an afterthought on a team that might not have needed him in the first place.

It will be fascinating to see how this develops. The bet here is that Finley will have at least one moment in the playoffs where he can help decide the outcome of a game, but honestly, no one really knows and everyone is fine with that.

TALKING PLAYOFFS

With 20 games left in the regular season, it’s just about time to start thinking about the playoffs and matchups. The Celtics are currently sitting in the third spot in the East, and with Cleveland all but out of sight, they are likely to finish anywhere from two to four.

While the top four teams are relatively set, the bottom four has seen a great deal of shuffling since the trading deadline. Of the five teams competing for the final four playoff spots in the East, the Bucks and Raptors are the only two that are operating under some form of stability.

The Bulls and Heat both have rosters full of players on expiring contracts (ironically to pursue the same player: Dwyane Wade), which doesn’t tend to make for the best chemistry. The Bobcats are in the midst of an ownership change and with jobs opening up across the NBA, count on hearing coach Larry Brown’s name mentioned often.

No one knows what to expect come playoff time from Chicago, Miami or Charlotte. Even Toronto is a bit of a mystery.

But the Bucks are a well-coached team with an emerging center who happens to be a matchup nightmare for the Celtics. They have enough veterans to balance the youthful energy and enough irrational exuberance to balance the veteran hired guns. It’s the kind of mix that could be deadly come playoff time.

The Celtics will see the Bucks two more times between now and the end of the regular season, and it’s entirely possible that they will see them a whole lot more in April.

It’s hard enough to control your own destiny without worrying about everyone else, but if the last time the Celtics see Milwaukee is the regular-season finale, they will probably take it.