Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown play their best basketball together in elementary test vs. Bucks

The NBA Playoffs are the SATs, the only real test that matters. (ACT-truthers, beware.) For the Boston Celtics — a title contender — that makes games against teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs the PSATs.

Perhaps squaring off against the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks is the prep booklet handed out by high-school guidance counselors.

All of that to say: Boston’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night was a kindergarten spelling test.

As Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown proudly spelled the words cat, dog, and, for extra credit, ball, Cormac Ryan and Pete Nance were on the receiving end of the damage.

But a test is a test. And the Celtics passed with flying colors.

That’s C-O-L-O-R-S, colors.

Though a virtually meaningless game against Milwaukee at the beginning of April may not seem important, it did provide the Celtics another chance to get Tatum comfortable. And they certainly made the most of the practice time.

Tatum was one assist shy of his second straight triple-double, and he didn’t even play in the fourth quarter. He tried passing to Payton Pritchard for a third-quarter buzzer-beater, but the Celtics guard missed the long ball.

 

Brown, on the other hand, picked up where he left off in Miami. It wasn’t his