The Hospital Celtics Lost To The Bulls Which Is Bad, But Everyone Take A Deep Breath

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Well that shit was very annoying. For the first time in basically two weeks, the Celts lost a game. Normally I'd be much more upset watching this team lose to the 24-33 Bulls at home, but I am able to understand that the team we saw last night is not the same group that's been the best team in the East since the deadline. Missing Kemba, Smart, Rob, and Fournier is pretty substantial, but still annoying. This is still a bad loss coming at a time when the Celts need to be stacking wins, so let's not get it twisted. Losing this game is pretty embarrassing. What it doesn't do is discredit everything we've seen for almost the last month. That's probably what some out there will say, the same ones that scream they need to see a large sample when they play well and then they drop a game with half their rotation out to a bad team and this is who they are. People who do that are just looking to get a rise out of you. 

But that doesn't mean we can excuse what we saw from the people that did play. The Jays were active in theory that should be enough, and Tatum had one of the worst shooting performances of his career. Does that undo everything we've seen from him over the course of this month? Of course not, but it's annoying. 

It's pretty clear the entire roster is dealing with the flu or something non covid related which is just their luck. Guys are dropping left and right. At a time when all the teams around them in the East are winning, dropping this game now puts a whole lot more pressure on the PHX/BKN back to back, which we know Kemba will be missing at least one of those games. That's what losing to bad teams and games you shouldn't lose does. The hope is now with two days off before those games, guys will get better and active for Thursday.

It's been a while since we've had one of these frustrating losses, that shit happens. It would be one thing if this was the regulars who couldn't stop the Bulls at home. But I feel OK with the fact that Tatum has one of his worst games of the season, their 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th best players didn't play and they still had a chance to pull this out late. Annoying, but not a disaster. 

With that said, let's dive in

The Good

- Knowing who was out, the Jays had to carry the load for this team to pull out a win. Jaylen Brown did just that. Once again he was great from the opening tip

A nice 10-15 (3-4) from the field, what I liked about Jaylen is he's getting back to hunting for his midrange shot. I know those reports that coaches wanted him to abandon that shot and instead just shoot threes, but I don't get why. It's such a weapon for Jaylen this season and time and time again we see him convert on that jumper when the team desperately needs points. Did you know he's shooting 50.7% in the midrange this season on nearly 3 FGA a night? Of players who take at least 2.9 midrange FGA a game, that's better than Paul George, Nikola Jokic, DeMar DeRozan, Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, Kawhi Leonard, CJ McCollum, Khris Middleton, Tobias Harris, Gordon Hayward, Zach LaVine etc. It's a real weapon! 

What was a little annoying though was we keep getting these long stretches when Jaylen is on fire, yet he never touches the ball. That cannot happen to the degree that it does. He took just 6 FGA in the second half, three in each quarter. That is nowhere close to enough given how he was playing. It's also crazy that Jaylen took 0 FTA in this game, yet only took 4 3PA. Given how aggressive he's been lately, I found that to be unfortunate.

- There's no denying that Payton Pritchard had definitely hit his rookie wall a little bit these last 6 weeks or so. Happens to basically every rookie unless your Zion or some shit. The good news is it does look like he's starting to shoot his way out of it

he's been much better his last three games

and this is so important for this roster down the stretch. With Kemba not playing B2Bs and Smart a little under the weather, the backup point guard minutes from Pritchard are crucial. The fact that he's back to being a shooting threat is big for that second unit that often times does not have a reliable shooter on the floor. Watching Pritchard you're seeing a guy that is still lights out from 30 feet, but these last few games it feels like he's been more aggressive in terms of attacking the rim with an intent to shoot/score. We are getting fewer possessions where he just drives hard to the paint and then picks up his dribble and spins around, holding it for 7 seconds before he passes it back out to Tatum who is forced to take an end of shot clock three. 

When this roster has everyone active hopefully in a playoff series, we may not see much of Pritchard, and that's OK. But getting this version of him to close out the season is huge. Especially if Kemba/Smart are going to miss more games.

- Listen I don't know what Jabari Parker will be for this team. My expectations are very low until proven otherwise. But you have to admit, there are early signs of him being capable of at least giving this team something off the bench

Here's what I know. I'm intrigued with his ability to play the dunker spot and a roll man in the P&R with the second unit. He's had a couple of dunks so far in his Celtics career that legitimately surprised me. It's just nice to have an NBA vet in these roles that you could potentially trust for a bucket or two. It's not like any of the other reserve bigs outside of Thompson have separated themselves, and you can't tell me that someone like Semi or Grant has shown you more.

Nobody is saying Jabari Parker is the savior. That's not what this is about. This is about Ainge potentially finding himself a reliable option at the end of his bench for basically nothing. This looks nothing like the player that was in SAC, so maybe it really was just all about the opportunity and the situation around him. Another 8 points on 4-7 shooting in 15 minutes, that's exactly what I want from him in that role. Through 2 games, he's been great. A disaster defensively sure, but we knew that already.

- Hey Tremont actually gave them something! A much better performance compared to what we saw against the Lakers, that dude is fast as shit. Still all set with his roster spot moving forward, but credit where credit is due he came in and gave them a spark in the fourth.

- That's really it. I mean they lost to the goddamn Bulls.

The Bad

- Nothing more frustrating than when this team gets off to a good start, and then immediately goes right into the toilet. A brutal 18 points in the second quarter on 35/12% shooting followed up by an even worse third quarter with another 18 points on 38/20% shooting. The issue was in that third quarter the Celts also decided to not play any defense. The Bulls got whatever they wanted, shot 59/44%, killed them on 2nd chance points and a 6 point lead turned into an 8 point deficit in a blink of an eye. Unfortunately, it was mostly the starters doing the damage. The Jays were on the floor for nearly the entire third. Pritchard played 10 minutes. Thompson played 10 minutes. But when you have that brutal mix of nobody being able to hit an open shot combined with zero defense, that's how momentum changess.

- I understand they were short handed, but if Semi and Grant are going to play, they need to do two things.

1. Guard their position at an acceptable level

2. Make their open looks 

We got neither last night. On the defensive end, their opponents got whatever they wanted. In terms of shooting, they finished a combined 4-13. Grant especially missed some pretty huge momentum looks while being wide open. It was a disaster night for him pretty much the entire game. You could hear Ainge's frustration with him while he was calling the game. Whether it was a bad foul, a missed wide open look, a bad rotation, this was certainly not a game that will make the Grant season highlight tape.

It's why someone like Jabari Parker is kind of important if he can continue to play like he has. If Grant isn't going to defend like we've seen during their streak and he's not going to make his open looks, he probably shouldn't be getting 20+ minutes a night.

- For as legit as Romeo is defensively, and he was pretty damn good on that end in this game, his offense is just as raw. It's not so much about the missed huge corner three and then subsequent missed floater in the closing seconds, but really the entire game. For a slasher, he doesn't finish at the rim very well at the moment. It reminds me a little of early Jaylen. 

I thought he showed flashes as a primary ball handler in the P&R, and like I said his defense was legit once again. On a night like last night though they needed his offense to show up as well.

- Everyone knows that when you have a 3 on 1 fast break in a crucial moment you should definitely decide to pass the ball to Grant who most definitely does not want to shoot/know what to do only for him to force a late pass to Jaylen who blows the layup. Why they didn't just avoid Grant all together and throw the lob to Jaylen is beyond me. But that was bad.

The Ugly

- Where else would you put Tatum's 3-17 performance? I mean, he finished with more TOs (4) in this game than made baskets. That's……not great. Yeah he had a triple double which is cool and all considering it was his first ever, but it came in one of his worst games of the year, in a loss. Something tells me he'd trade that for a win.

Maybe he was due for a clinker, I mean he is human, but last night was frustrating because this game was for the taking in the fourth quarter. Tatum finished just 2-7 in his 12 minutes and had 3 brutal turnovers. Again, more TOs than FGM. For a guy that has been so nails in the clutch for about a month now, that was annoying. Doesn't mean anything more than that. 

- Finally though, we saw what turnovers can do. A total of 5 in the fourth quarter alone, the Celts were careless with the ball against a bad team and it finally cost them. The Bulls had 16 points off turnovers which you could argue was the difference. Combine that with an 18-4 advantage in 2nd chance points coming off 9 OREBs, and those are two areas where you have to be solid at all times. I don't care who is playing. Rebounding is about effort. It's not like Tatum isn't used to having the ball in his hands late, he can't turn it over like that. 

- Blame it on not wearing the home whites. What the fuck is going on with that? I know the league office picks them or some shit like that, but what the hell. It's not like this game was on national tv or anything and they wanted to show off their alternates so people buy them. Give us the home whites, it's the best jersey in the league. It's getting out of hand.

So look, the Celts refused to make things easier for themselves. What else is new. Now we get to see how they respond to a little pressure during this stretch where the normal rotation guys are playing great. I guess it'll all come down to who is actually active for those games. If it's another situation where the same guys are out on Thursday that missed last night, good luck. But if everyone (outside of Fournier maybe) is back, there's no reason to think they shouldn't be able to come out with at least a split. They just can't play like they did last night, because that sucked ass.