Bulls (23-33) at Celtics (31-26) Game #58 4/19/21

[radiohead]

Just a bad bad loss

We blew an opportunity to gain some ground on the 4th seed. The main story here I think is that the Celtics as a team just didn’t respect their opponent. It didn’t help that they started the game on fire in the first quarter. When the Bulls came back it felt like the energy just wasn’t there anymore, as if they were just waiting for the Bulls to fold. This was the old Celtics team that showed up tonight. Of course we were undermanned bit still this was a very winnable game.

so, you don't think the main story is the celtics missing 4 of their top 6 players and one of the two remaining good players had an gawd awful shooting night?

we can agree to disagree.

Those are all valid points. But i really think this game was winnable even with those 4 players missing, had the Cs played a bit more focused and composed. They played in spurts and it ended up causing them the game. Maybe “disrespecting the opponent” is a bit harsh but I just felt like they were expecting the Bulls to fade away and only played with urgency in the latter part of the fourth.

[LilRip]

When you go looking for reasons this team lost you can look at a bunch of things:

Timelord, Smart, Kemba and Fournier out.

The unforced turnovers being so high. I can live with forced turnovers that the opponent's great defense creates. Hats off to them. But the shear amount of unforced turnovers is unacceptable.

The refs made some crucial bad decisions that cost the Celtics dearly. The gold tend on a block by Romeo. A missed offensive goaltend by Chicago. 2 fouls that Brown didn't get that should have sent him to the line. A few other calls.

Too many times this team had Brown and/or Tatum on the court and they weren't touching the ball for many times down the court with bad offensive players trying to do more than they are capable of and the team didn't score. With 4 of the top six players out, both Brown and Tatum should have shot the ball 22-25 times.

But....that last part said, the biggest problem was simply the post NBA MVP, Jayson, couldn't hit his shots. That really is the biggest reason.

That's not to say it's all Tatum's fault the team lost. He was magnificent in everything else he did and if he wasn't playing playmaker this team loses by 15.

But 3-17 is the outlier for me.

He had 4 turnovers, Nick.  Not that magnificent in everything else.   I think he tried his best to be the playmaker in absence of Smart and Kemba tonight. But he seemed a step slow going to the rim, which is where most of his turnovers occurred.  He's been playing so great lately, I'm giving him a pass.

You realize that Tatum's seasonal assist to turnover ratio is 1.68 to 1. His assist to turnover was 2.5 to 1 in this game, better than his numbers this year and for his entire career. You want 10 assists from him, you can't be criticizing the 4 TOs. It's a product of the increased responsibility of the playmaking he took on today. I think he was magnificent in everything he did. While taking on more offensive responsibility he increased his assist to turnover ratio rather than lowering it.

This

I remember a couple of the turnovers and both were due to Bulls being active on defense
1. He drove in the lane (something we want him doing!) and he got stripped. Ironically, this exact same thing happened to JB the following possession
2. He drew two defenders in the paint and dropped a bounce pass to Thompson, but the Bulls read it and someone from weak side ran in and stole it

Both plays, I can live with.

It’s the 3-17 that was a head scratcher, especially considering how often he got in the paint.

[Atzar]

A few thoughts on the game:

Tatum couldn't throw it in the ocean but played very well aside from that. 

The Bulls deserve some credit for our offensive performance tonight.  They overloaded on Tatum and Brown, tasking the rest of our personnel with beating them.  It was a good gameplan.  Brown still played well, but they limited his opportunities effectively... and Tatum was unable to force himself into gear as a scorer. 

Defensive communication continues to be an issue.  Our effort is there.  Has been for a while IMO... even before the winning streak started.  But running really hard in the wrong direction doesn't produce better results than not giving a s***.  I don't understand why this suddenly became a problem this year, because it hasn't really been an issue like this for our previous teams under Stevens.  Maybe it's the lack of practice time, or lack of continuity because of constantly-shifting lineups.  Our first guy helps just fine - sometimes TOO much - but we suck at helping the helper.  Any offense can pass our defense to pieces.

The point-Romeo experiment intrigued me... for a few reasons.  First, I can't help but think that maybe we took the Bulls a bit lightly.  Normally we stagger Brown and Tatum, ensuring that one is on the floor to run the offense at almost all times.  But tonight, both Jays and Pritchard sat at the same time.  Can't help but wonder if we thought we had an opportunity to get away with an experiment against a poor opponent.  An odd decision, but I didn't think that those minutes cost us the game anyway (we were roughly even in that time period IIRC, neither gaining nor giving ground), so whatever.

Anyway, it appears to me that Romeo has some upside in that role.  He makes some good (though predictably inconsistent) decisions as the ball-handler in the pick-and-roll, and IMO if we were able to field a better lineup around him, he might have been able to shine a little more in that role.  But we threw him out there with three non-scorers and Jabari Parker, who has been with the team for all of three days.  I hope that's not the last we see of that idea.  I doubt it makes an appearance again this season, but hopefully its on Romeo's itinerary as he continues to develop.  Needless to say, a future version of Romeo who can credibly run a second unit would be a very helpful piece to have.

[Celtics4ever]

The point-Romeo experiment intrigued me... for a few reasons.  First, I can't help but think that maybe we took the Bulls a bit lightly.  Normally we stagger Brown and Tatum, ensuring that one is on the floor to run the offense at almost all times.  But tonight, both Jays and Pritchard sat at the same time.  Can't help but wonder if we thought we had an opportunity to get away with an experiment against a poor opponent.  An odd decision, but I didn't think that those minutes cost us the game anyway (we were roughly even in that time period IIRC, neither gaining nor giving ground), so whatever.

This loss was on CBS, sure we were short handed, but it was winnable game.   He kept Jaylen out too long in the fourth and Grant in too long.

Anyway, it appears to me that Romeo has some upside in that role.  He makes some good (though predictably inconsistent) decisions as the ball-handler in the pick-and-roll, and IMO if we were able to field a better lineup around him, he might have been able to shine a little more in that role.  But we threw him out there with three non-scorers and Jabari Parker, who has been with the team for all of three days.  I hope that's not the last we see of that idea.  I doubt it makes an appearance again this season, but hopefully its on Romeo's itinerary as he continues to develop.  Needless to say, a future version of Romeo who can credibly run a second unit would be a very helpful piece to have.

The real upside I see is on D and he is athletic.   He can get to the rim and he is known for this skill in high school.  As for his PG skills, he had some good passes and some bad ones and I think his distribution and passing were a wash.   It was nice to have a non lilliputian PG.

[Kiorrik]

When you go looking for reasons this team lost you can look at a bunch of things:

Timelord, Smart, Kemba and Fournier out.

The unforced turnovers being so high. I can live with forced turnovers that the opponent's great defense creates. Hats off to them. But the shear amount of unforced turnovers is unacceptable.

The refs made some crucial bad decisions that cost the Celtics dearly. The gold tend on a block by Romeo. A missed offensive goaltend by Chicago. 2 fouls that Brown didn't get that should have sent him to the line. A few other calls.

Too many times this team had Brown and/or Tatum on the court and they weren't touching the ball for many times down the court with bad offensive players trying to do more than they are capable of and the team didn't score. With 4 of the top six players out, both Brown and Tatum should have shot the ball 22-25 times.

But....that last part said, the biggest problem was simply the post NBA MVP, Jayson, couldn't hit his shots. That really is the biggest reason.

That's not to say it's all Tatum's fault the team lost. He was magnificent in everything else he did and if he wasn't playing playmaker this team loses by 15.

But 3-17 is the outlier for me.

He had 4 turnovers, Nick.  Not that magnificent in everything else.   I think he tried his best to be the playmaker in absence of Smart and Kemba tonight. But he seemed a step slow going to the rim, which is where most of his turnovers occurred.  He's been playing so great lately, I'm giving him a pass.

You realize that Tatum's seasonal assist to turnover ratio is 1.68 to 1. His assist to turnover was 2.5 to 1 in this game, better than his numbers this year and for his entire career. You want 10 assists from him, you can't be criticizing the 4 TOs. It's a product of the increased responsibility of the playmaking he took on today. I think he was magnificent in everything he did. While taking on more offensive responsibility he increased his assist to turnover ratio rather than lowering it.

This

I remember a couple of the turnovers and both were due to Bulls being active on defense
1. He drove in the lane (something we want him doing!) and he got stripped. Ironically, this exact same thing happened to JB the following possession
2. He drew two defenders in the paint and dropped a bounce pass to Thompson, but the Bulls read it and someone from weak side ran in and stole it

Both plays, I can live with.

It’s the 3-17 that was a head scratcher, especially considering how often he got in the paint.

Love all of this.

We spoke about this game as a trap game as well, well before it.

Exactly what it was.

[Birdman]

Not going win many games with Smart, Walker, TimeLord & Fournier not playing..and having D- leaguers-  Grant, Romeo, Nesmith, Waters, Semi playing

[jambr380]

Not sure why everybody is blaming the 4th quarter for our loss. Yes, of course we could have had better execution down the stretch, but our line-up with Tatum/Brown getting blown up in the 3rd is what really did us in. Their bench clearly had an advantage over ours in terms of experience, but their starters - outside of Vuc - had a very low ceiling.

We had a 6 point lead going into half-time and were down by 8 after the 3rd. I think most people were probably pretty relieved to get out of the 1st half with a lead after going to a line-up with Romeo as our best player. Not taking it to CHI to start out the 3rd was the real disappointment here. Both teams scored 18 in the 2nd, but CHI outscored us 32-18 in the 3rd. You can't count on winning when you have two 18 point quarters.

[td450]

Did the last 30 seconds bother anyone? It did not seem like the C's understood clearly what they had to do to give themselves a chance.

They didn't shoot any three's. They didn't load up against Coby White, a 91% free throw shooter, and try to force a lesser free throw shooter to get the ball.

[Tr1boy]

can't win every game... Hopefully TL returns soons.  Bulls look like they were instructed to hit the boards hard

Even with a triple double, Tatum had a poor game.  Sloppy with the ball.

Grant Williams didn't play well.  He has to stop making the extra cute passes on the fast break

Pritchard had a nice game and Brad/Tatum should have recognize this. Made an effort to get him more shots

Good call to insert Waters in the 4th.  He was a sparksplug

[Celtics4ever]

Grant Williams didn't play well.  He has to stop making the extra cute passes on the fast break

You can literally count on your thumbs the times he has played well this year.   

[Amonkey]

Did the last 30 seconds bother anyone? It did not seem like the C's understood clearly what they had to do to give themselves a chance.

They didn't shoot any three's. They didn't load up against Coby White, a 91% free throw shooter, and try to force a lesser free throw shooter to get the ball.

I noticed that too. On the first basket I thought it was okay since there was still plenty of time and they had no timeouts (and to their credit they did a good job inbounding and taking away time) but on the last basket/FT attempt, that should have been a 3.

[hodgy03038]

Too many turnovers at key times. However, that is THE VERY FIRST TIME I HAVE EVER SEEN WATERS PLAY WELL. I was impressed last night. He kind of reminded me of Rozier when you needed a steal or deflection he kind of had that knack. I think the kid just earned himself some more minutes.

[nickagneta]

Too many turnovers at key times. However, that is THE VERY FIRST TIME I HAVE EVER SEEN WATERS PLAY WELL. I was impressed last night. He kind of reminded me of Rozier when you needed a steal or deflection he kind of had that knack. I think the kid just earned himself some more minutes.

Over who?

Kemba?
Smart?
Payton?
Langford?
Fournier?

That's 5 guards ahead of him in the guard rotation, 3 of them PGs. At times last night Langford was the PG while Waters was sitting.

I am not sure one game playing good in very short minutes warrants him anything. As you said, it's the first time he has ever played well. What are those sayings?

Even a blind squirrel....
Even a broken clock....

[Celtics4ever]

    Did the last 30 seconds bother anyone? It did not seem like the C's understood clearly what they had to do to give themselves a chance.

Missing our 2 best PGs didn't help in this regard

[liam]

Too many turnovers at key times. However, that is THE VERY FIRST TIME I HAVE EVER SEEN WATERS PLAY WELL. I was impressed last night. He kind of reminded me of Rozier when you needed a steal or deflection he kind of had that knack. I think the kid just earned himself some more minutes.

Over who?

Kemba?
Smart?
Payton?
Langford?
Fournier?

That's 5 guards ahead of him in the guard rotation, 3 of them PGs. At times last night Langford was the PG while Waters was sitting.

I am not sure one game playing good in very short minutes warrants him anything. As you said, it's the first time he has ever played well. What are those sayings?

Even a blind squirrel....
Even a broken clock....

Waters can only play as a situational change up type player. Put in for energy and to be a defensive pest. If he doesn't come in and play hard and smart he'll never see the court. Has to play more like vs Bulls and less like vs Lakers.