In What Was An Emotional Night, The Celtics Drop Game 1
This one hurt. You have to credit the Bulls, they did exactly what you want to do as a visiting lower seed. They kept the game close and stole a game on the road. It wouldn’t feel right if the Celtics weren’t as frustrating in the postseason as they were in the regular season so here we are. Down 0-1. By no means is the series in serious trouble, but it’s now an uphill climb, with an extraordinary amount of pressure on Tuesday night.
There’s a few ways you can look at this game. One, that this was the best the Bulls are going to play in this series. That if anything based on how this team has played, this was more the exception than the rule (more on this later). There are parts of that way of thinking that I agree with, but not totally. Another way is the Celtics showed that they can play well against this team, and that over the course of the series that will even itself out, water always finds its level. But the third way is really not as pleasant. It’s that despite the Celtics outplaying Chicago in almost every facet of the game, they still lost. That maybe THIS was the best the Celtics are going to play, and it wasn’t enough.
Anytime you lose in the playoffs, there’s going to be some form of panic to some degree. Teams like BOS, LAC, TOR are all in the same boat. Hell, even CLE was a made jumper away from being 0-1 as well. The good news is there is a lot of basketball left to be played, and the Celtics issues in this series are 100% fixable.
Last night was emotional for a number of reasons, and it sucks that the Celtics came up short. Really sucks. But as you review Game 1 there were also some positive takeaways that will be key to them turning things around.
Let’s talk about it.
The Good
– What is there to say. Isaiah Thomas is simply incredible. You know I see the chirps on Twitter and shit about how I am delusional when it comes to Isaiah. That I can’t see who he is through my Celtics homer glasses. Well I ask you, how have I been wrong? Maybe it is the detractors that are delusional, because I have no idea what you’re watching. The fact that Isaiah was able to even play in this game is incredible. Add in that not only did he play, but DOMINATED, makes my head explode. How? How did he do it? Here’s a guy who’s world was destroyed before the biggest event of his professional life, who couldn’t get through shootaround without tears, and he went out and did this
33 points, 5 rebounds 6 assists 1 steal with 55/42% splits. Insane. Big basket after big basket, Isaiah’s 2017 playoff debut was exactly what I expected. He isn’t the same player that we saw in the CLE and ATL series from previous years. I tried to explain this, and now we have the film to prove it. I was told the playoffs are different, that defenses were going to be able to lock in on Isaiah, and that he wouldn’t be able to replicate his production from the regular season in a playoff series. Well, one game in, that look A LOT like regular season Isaiah Thomas to me.
He even continued his dominance in the fourth quarter like he has so many times during the regular season. A total of 12 points on 3-5 shooting, it really really pisses me off that the Celts wasted this effort.
– One of the big things heading into this series was how would Isaiah adjust to being blitzed off the high P&R. The thought being that if you are able to double him here, the Celtics offense stalls. Well last night I think we got a look at how the Celts will approach this defensive tactic. See when this happens, it’s more than what decision Isaiah makes. Once he passes out of that blitz, it’s up to everyone else to maximize the mismatch and get an easy shot. I thought this play midway through the third quarter was a great example of that
To me, the biggest X Factor when this type of stuff happens is going to be Horford and his decision making. Fortunately, the guy is an absolute boss in terms of basketball IQ and making the right basketball pass.
– Speaking of Horford, not a bad Celtics playoff debut if you ask me. What’s that line a lot of the Horford haters will say? Because of how much money he makes you need him to step up in big games? I think 19/7/8 on 8-13 shooting qualifies. It wouldn’t shock me that when the Celts look at the film in preparation for Game 2, they’ll see how smooth their offense ran when they went through Al. The first step in that success is making sure Horford got the ball in good position. From there, the rest was gravy. You had him finding cutters, you had him making jumpers, you had him taking it to the rim. Mix in a couple plays where he ran the fast break, and I’d give Al’s first playoff performance a solid 8/10. There was something that bothered me (stay tuned), but overall, this was the Horford I want to see for the rest of the series. If that happens, Celts will be OK.
– The way Avery started this game, it looked as if the Celts found their secondary scoring to pair with Isaiah. The Tacoma Twins basically carried the Celtics in the first half, and a lot of what we talked about in the preview proved to be true. There is no way Wade is going to be able to stay with Avery through the dozens and dozens of screens he gets within this offense. He is going to have every opportunity to make an impact, and we saw what it looks like when Avery has the time and space to step into his shot. It’s no surprise that the best the Celtics looked in this game was when Avery was active on both ends, and it’s why for me he is the most important Celtic not named Isaiah for this playoff run.
– I thought for 75% of this game, the Celtics did a wonderful job on Butler. His final quarter may have negated everything beforehand, but he did shoot 5-12 heading into the final 12 minutes and was a -7. If the Celts can figure out a way to extend that defense to a full 48 minutes on Jimmy, and that is certainly no easy task, we probably won’t have too many more frustrating results.
– Brad ATOs stay king. That lob midway through the second quarter was a thing of beauty.
– He only played 11 minutes, but I was happy with Jaylen Brown’s performance. He did have a little miscommunication with Olynyk on the defensive end that led to a dunk, but the highlight of his night was for sure knocking down a three at one end, and then winning the iso battle against Butler on the other. You never know how a rookie is going to perform under the bright lights of the playoffs, but what we saw from Jaylen has to be at least a little encouraging
The Bad
– Man, where to begin. I suppose we should start with the biggest reason the Celtics lost this game, and it’s something we talked about in the preview. The Celtics picked the absolute worst time to have their worst defensive rebounding performance of the entire season. They grabbed just 54.4% of the available defensive rebounds. That is PATHETIC. Basically, if the Celts just had a kind of shitty night on the glass, instead of the worst effort all season, they probably win. That’s tough to swallow.
I wrote about how the Bulls are among the best OREB teams in the league, but a lot of that had to do with Taj Gibson. Well fuck me because Robin Lopez feasted. Always fun to see that dude go for 14/11 with 8 OREB. EIGHT!! I don’t know what was more infuriating, seeing that, or seeing Rondo get four OREB himself. The final rebounding totals are bad, so bad I almost don’t want to type them, but in this blog we don’t run when things get bad. How awful was it? 52-36 awful. The Bulls nearly had as many offensive rebounds as the Celtics had total rebounds. That’s a gigantic problem. Those 20 OREB lead to 23 second chance points, and the Celtics were very lucky it was just that few. And to be honest, I’m looking at everyone as to who to blame. Amir needs to get more than four rebounds, Marcus and Avery need to crash the glass, Horford needs to rebound in every quarter, there really is no excuse. What good is playing good defense if you aren’t even able to clear the glass.
– As well as Horford played, he played the whole fourth quarter. He also had zero rebounds. Now the Bulls didn’t have any OREB in the fourth, so I wouldn’t say this was a big reason as to why those final 12 minutes went the way they did, but that’s not a great number.
– Heading into the playoffs, the way Jae Crowder was shooting the ball combined with the fact that he’s 100% healthy, I was excited for how he should have shot the ball. Well, he turned in a big fat stinker. A 4-12 (1-5 from deep) performance isn’t going to cut it. The frustrating part of his night was when he put his head down and took it to the rim, good things usually happened. His -10 was by far the worst of any starter, and let’s be honest, if the Celtics are going to win a game let alone a series, they need all five of their starters to play well. Call it early foul trouble if you want, but Jae wasn’t in a rhythm and we saw what happens when that’s the case. Will he shoot this poorly the entire playoffs? Who knows, but there isn’t an injury excuse this time around.
– Also, again he played well, but after starting out 4-8 in the first half, Avery finished the game shooting 1-5. All that secondary scoring seemed to vanish in the final two quarters. Both Avery and Jae had wide open looks that just rimmed out, and if they aren’t going to knock down shots, the Celts are in trouble, simple as that.
– Let me ask you a question. How many times this year do you think Bobby Portis scored at least 19 points? The answer is three times. How many times do you think he made three 3s in a game? That would be twice. So the fact that he dropped 19 points including three 3s and shot 8-10 from the field is absolutely infuriating. Remember, this is the same Bobby Portis that had 12 points on 6-15 shooting the last time these two teams played. His fourth quarter (8 points on perfect shooting) was the difference in this game. I fully expected him to do work on the glass against the Celtics, I did not anticipate we were going to see Bobby Portis: HOF knock down shooter.
The Ugly
– It is becoming extremely concerning how frequently the Celtics second unit fucks everything up. After an emotional opening quarter in which the Celts played with FANTASTIC energy and led 28-23 after one, here came the second unit. The second quarter has always been a thorn in the Celtics side, and I wrote in the preview that I really hoped the bench wouldn’t come in and blow everything, and there it was. The Celtics didn’t score a basket in what seemed like the first four minutes of the second quarter. Their bench players shot 2-6 and Marcus/Jaylen/Olynyk were a combined -21. As a team the Celtics shot 34/28% and turned it over five times. All the sudden a five point lead turned into a two point deficit at the half, which was only that close because of a Horford three at the buzzer.
Things didn’t get much better for the second unit as the game went on either. They finished the game 8-19 (4-11 from deep). The Bulls did a great job of making Marcus Smart beat them with his shot instead of his pass, and that worked out how you might think. Missing those two corner threes was absolutely brutal, and honestly even though he made a couple before hand, it pains me that he’s the one taking that shot in that moment.
The Bulls on the other hand, won this game because of their second unit. They poured in 35 points on 13-26 shooting (4-10 from deep). They did not have one bench player turn in a minus performance in terms of +/-. The Celtics on the other hand got just 23 points from their bench, and only had two players with a positive +/- and they played just 3 minutes each. Olynyk was a disaster, Smart didn’t make his normal impact, and Jaylen barely played. Not a great showing from the bench and that’s being polite.
– Here’s the other frustrating part about last night. The Celtics chose the absolute worst time to have their worst defensive quarter. Allowing 32 points on 53/66% splits in the fourth quarter is all you need to know about why they couldn’t pull it out. Unable to get consecutive stops after big momentum baskets bit them in the ass yet again, similar to what we saw from them to end the year. Again the Celtics could not hold a team under 100 points, one that doesn’t even shoot particularly well. Their defense actually got worse as each quarter went on, going from allowing 23 to 25 to 26 to 32 points. When the Celtics reserves have a second quarter like they did, and the defense doesn’t tighten up as the game goes on, the Celts won’t win. Period.
– Yes, it is extremely tough to swallow the fact that the Celtics shot better, turned it over less, and shot better from three, and still couldn’t come up with the win. This kept me up until no later than 2:30 this morning.
– I’d say it’s not ideal when you give up that many OREB, and combine it with 15 TOs. Isaiah had 6 himself, but Avery also had 4 which is high for him. I’m pretty sure if the Celtics don’t rebound, don’t defend, and turn the ball over, things will not work out for them.
– That tech on Isaiah was the weakest shit I have ever seen in my entire life.
The hot takes are sure to be out today, and frankly the Celtics deserve it. After you’re done venting, understand that despite the opening loss, it is NOT time to panic. Lose Tuesday? Sure, I’ll be right there with you. Remember this is sort of how the Celtics season has been all year. They lost games they should win all the time, and they’ve shown the ability to respond and right the ship. Trust in that. Also, remember the Celts had 23 road wins this year which tied them for the most in the East. They can absolutely win on the road in CHI if they just get their shit together.
So while it sucks that they couldn’t rally and win this one for their leader, they are far from dead. FARRRRRRRRR from dead.
Turn the page, focus on Tuesday, and say it with me
