BOSTON — A first-half blowout became a second-half thriller for the short-handed Celtics on Wednesday.

Playing without superstar Jayson Tatum (rest), Boston blew a 22-point lead but recovered in the final minutes to pull out a 109-102 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.

An 8-2 run late in the fourth quarter won the game for the Celtics, who improved to 6-2 on the season. Paul George, back in the lineup after sitting out Monday’s loss in Houston, capped a 25-point, five-assist, four-steal outing with a clinching 3-pointer with 1:23 to play.

Derrick White (24 points, seven assists, two blocks) scored seven of Boston’s final 10 points, helping the Celtics avoid an upset against the 1-7 Bucks. They also got clutch plays late from Neemias Queta (nine points, 12 rebounds, two blocks) and Baylor Scheierman (nine points, 11 rebounds, one block, one steal).

Payton Pritchard scored 10 points before exiting late in the third quarter with what the Celtics called a right eye abrasion. Boston’s sixth man was listed as questionable entering the game with a bruised shoulder.

The Celtics now will begin a four-game road trip that features one of the most anticipated dates on their schedule: a visit to Jaylen Brown, LeBron James and the Philadelphia 76ers next Tuesday.

Before that, they’ll be in Charlotte on Friday and play a rematch with the Bucks on Sunday in Milwaukee. Twelve of Boston’s 16 games in November are road games.

Head coach Joe Mazzulla plugged Tatum’s spot in the starting lineup Wednesday with Sam Hauser, who became the ninth different Boston player to start a game this season.

Hauser was coming off a 1-for-6 showing in Monday’s loss to Houston, but he’s been one of the Celtics’ top perimeter shooters this season, entering with a 3-point field-goal percentage of 41.2%. He also led all Celtics players in net rating entering Wednesday.

The veteran wing let it fly early against the Bucks, hitting a 3-pointer on Boston’s first possession and another on its third.

George took over from there. With Tatum sitting, his running mate played the entire first quarter, put up 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting and spearheaded a swarming Celtics defense with two early steals. The Celtics led 28-14 after one.

Boston deployed double-big lineups for much of the night, first pairing Mitchell Robinson and Luka Garza, then Queta and Garza, then Queta and Robinson. Robinson, who came off the bench behind Queta for the second straight game, had five first-quarter rebounds and one steal, but he missed on two put-back attempts, and he and George failed to connect on a lob dunk.

Lobs to Boston’s newest 7-footer have a success rate below 50% this season.

Milwaukee went 7 for 15 from deep in the second quarter, with multiple makes by Myles Turner and Tyler Herro, but that had little impact on the scoreboard. Garza paced the Celtics with eight points in the period (two threes and a third-chance put-back), and their lead did not drop below 14.

Robinson, the target of criticism during his underwhelming start to the season, remained active on the glass, even if most of his rebounds did not produce points. He finished with a season-high 10 boards, including six offensive, but went just 1 for 8 from the field.

A corner 3 by Baylor Scheierman sent the Celtics into the locker room with a 62-41 cushion.

Momentum then flipped in the third quarter. Led by 17 points from Herro — the centerpiece of the offseason blockbuster that sent Bucks icon Giannis Antetokounmpo to Miami — Milwaukee cut Boston’s lead from 21 points to five.

Most of the damage came against a new-look Celtics lineup of Pritchard, George, Hauser, Garza and Robinson that had not played together before. That grouping was on the floor for six Bucks possessions and surrendered points on five of them before Mazzulla changed personnel.

Back-to-back 3-pointers from Scheierman halted a 19-7 Bucks run. A Hauser 3 and Queta tip-in made it 87-79 heading into the fourth. Boston then missed its first four shots of the final quarter — all from 3-point range — and Milwaukee cut it to two.

A transition layup by rookie Nate Ament off a George turnover pulled the Bucks even at 91-91. A Garza offensive foul wiped out a successful fast-break lob to Robinson, and an Ament free throw gave Milwaukee its first lead of the game with 6:50 remaining in regulation.

The Celtics responded with a drawn foul by White, a blocked shot by Queta and a contested reverse layup by George.

Tied at 99-99 with just over three minutes to play, Queta scored at the rim over Turner, and White followed with and-one layup set up by Scheierman, who wrestled an offensive rebound away from multiple Bucks defenders. The Celtics led the rest of the way.

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