The Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Boston Celtics, 110-101, at the TD Garden on Friday night. O.J. Mayo scored 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field including 4-for-6 from three-point range, nabbed five rebounds and dished out six assists.

Ersan Ilyasova, who has averaged 15.4 points per game in his last 20 games, added 17 on 8-of-14 shooting while Khris Middleton contributed with 13 points and seven rebounds in 34 minutes of play.

On the other side of the court, Isaiah Thomas led the Celtics with 23 points off the bench to go with six assists, and Avery Bradley and Jonas Jerebko produced 17 points apiece.

Milwaukee had a well-rounded, balanced game as they outshot Boston 53 percent-to-44 percent, outrebounded them 45-to-41, and had 12 more assists (31-to-19). The Bucks had six players accumulating at least three or more assists. The Bucks also targeted the paint as Boston is last in the league in blocks for a 62-to-48 advantage.

Jared Sullinger, who initially was ruled out for the season with a stress fracture in his left foot, made a surprising return has he entered the game in the third quarter. In three minutes of play Sullinger miss both of his field goal attempts and grabbed only one rebound.

With the loss, Boston is now a half-game behind the Miami Heat for the coveted final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

In the first quarter, Avery Bradley started out hot hitting his first four shots for an early 9-6 lead, while Milwaukee was stone cold converting on only 3-of-12 field goal attmepts. With just under six minutes left in the quarter they started to heat up and responded with a 13-3 run. Isaiah Thomas scored the final five points for a 25-21 lead heading into the second.

Both teams were in a close battle to start the second as they exchanged baskets for a 35-31 score in Boston’s favor before Milwaukee hit back-to-back three-pointers to retake the lead. It was a short-lived advantage as Kelly Olynyk hit a jumper to spark a 10-0 run, but the Bucks were poised and fought back to cap the period on a 15-7 run including 10 from a red-hot O.J. Mayo. Mayo scored 15 of his 20 points in the second period and was 8-for-10 in the first half, including 4-of-4 from beyond the arc with four assists. Bradley had 14 points at the break.

Even though the Bucks outshot the Celtics 48-to-43 percent with a 15-to-10 assist advantage, they still trailed at halftime 52-50.

In the third quarter, Milwaukee checked out and blew the game wide open. While Mayo was the man with the hot hand in the second, it was Ersan Ilyasova who was on fire in the third as he scored 13 of his 17 points. The Bucks took a 15-point, 73-58 lead following a 23-8 opening run, and the Celtics only scored two baskets in an eight-minute span during the scoring spree. Milwaukee led 86-75 after three in the books.

Boston scored the first seven points of the fourth to cut the lead to four, 86-82, but that was the closest they would get the rest of the game. Zaza Pachulia and Jared Dudley answered with consecutive layups, and Michael Carter-Williams hit a three to make it 93-84.

The Bucks play Orlando in the second of a back-to-back Saturday night in Milwaukee while the Celtics will be at Toronto.