After years of flailing in the NBA’s middling hell, the Chicago Bulls started rebuilding this past offseason. So, an easy one for the Boston Celtics to put in the win column, right? Right? WRONG. They were on a back-to-back, Kyrie Irving was out with a contused quadricep and Al Horford had bonked his knee in the Pistons game. But that was no excuse for how thoroughly bad this loss was. The Cs underestimated the opposition and paid dearly.
THE GAME FLOW
Y’all like horrible shooting? Then the first two minutes of this game were ideal for you, as neither Boston nor Chicago could make a shot during that span. The heinously bearded Nikola Mirotic, having returned to the Bulls after rehabbing the face that Bobby Portis broke, drew first blood with a three at around the 9:55 mark. The Celtics didn’t respond until three minutes of game time elapsed, on an Aron Baynes jumper from the free-throw line. This fortunately catalyzed Boston’s offense and Marcus Smart decided to go on a tear from deep, hitting 3 of 3, and Terry Rozier nailed jumpers of his own.
But Chicago’s woes didn’t last, and a combination of back-to-back-game lethargy on D and being caught off-guard by an unfamiliar offense had Boston flummoxed. Hideous ball control made things worse, with the Cs amassing turnover after turnover. And when their shots went cold, Chicago’s didn’t, thanks largely to Portis and Mirotic as well as some surprising solid work down low by David Nwaba. By the grace given to morons, drunks and sometimes atrocious NBA teams, the baby Bulls went on an excruciating 18-2 run during the middle of the second quarter that put the Celtics behind as many as 18. Yes, you read that right.
This game is horrible.
Our heroes started returning to some semblance of form in the last four minutes of Q2, realizing the urgent need for strong defensive effort against a young squad with nothing to lose. And they got a number of good stops on Chicago, but couldn’t get enough buckets on their end to cut much into the deficit. When the halftime klaxon sounded, Boston remained in a 14-point hole, the tally at 56-42 in the Bulls’ favor.
The second half continued at the same tempo during its first several minutes, with the Celtics playing better but not well enough to retake the lead or seriously threaten. Defense was much better, but shots stayed ice cold until around the 8:00 mark, when Horford and Jaylen Brown got lucky on a string of jumpers.
And even then, the offense didn’t improve much: Driving dudes in black and green found themselves stuffed by the home team at the rim on more than one embarrassing occasion, and while the Cs got some good shots (the Bulls are, after all, bad, and will fall for good pick-and-rolls and motion plays) but they wouldn’t go in. Additionally, Chicago had a lot of success getting to the free-throw line, while Boston could barely end up at the stripe.
The deficit didn’t get that much worse, but stayed in its shitty position. Shooters who typically are non-starters like Portis, Denzel Valentine, Jerian Grant and Justin Holiday were out on this United Center floor looking like Steph friggin’ Curry. (I’m sticking with my “luck given to drunks, idiots and bad teams” argument, I guess.) With about eight minutes left, it didn’t look remotely good for Boston, and Brad Stevens, staring daggers at the court from his spot along the visitors’ sideline, was already prepared to start mentally filing film of the team’s mistakes to hopefully avoid them in the future. And by gawd he sure had plenty to choose from. The starters hit the bench, the bench fellas went through the motions and this one mercifully ended, a 108-85 trap-game loss.
In lieu of usual hot-or-not sections, I will cede the floor to @EffinBirds, which you all should follow:
— Effin' Birds (@EffinBirds) October 21, 2017
And also:
— Effin' Birds (@EffinBirds) September 3, 2017
[No Green Fire highlights either, because everything sucks and we’re all gonna die.]
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
