Like with art and music, just what makes a great ballgame?
Obviously to the fan, it’s a win for their team, which the Bulls came oh-so-close to in Boston Friday but didn't, losing 123-119 to drop to 5-5.
The prism of the statistics gave verisimilitude to the impression. It did seem like it had to be a great game, like great art producing visceral emotion in the waning moments with the Bulls a Patrick Williams three away from a tie with 23 seconds left after trailing by 14 points moments earlier. Like great music there seemed to be rhythm and harmony the way teammates found Nikola Vučević for a trio of three pointers in the last four minutes to leave you wanting more. And there was a message from the stars, the Bulls’ DeMar DeRozan scoring 46 points and Boston’s Jayson Tatum answering with 36.
What else could we ask for?
How about, you know, basketball instead of that free throw shooting clinic in which DeRozan made 20 of 22 and Tatum converted 17 of 20. There were more than 50 fouls called, and I’m just not grumpy because the Bulls lost even as the Celtics controlled most of the game.
But, c’mon, let ‘em play. Spectating doesn’t have to be collateral damage.
I know this is supposed to be an analysis of the game, which had its moments in the Bulls furious fight, or stroll, to the finish.
There was the moral victory aspect of the Bulls already this season defeating Boston, Miami and Brooklyn, demonstrating they are more competitive with the playoff elite than last season.
“I’m disappointed we lost and I’m disappointed with some of the things we did do, but I think the one thing and not that I always want to always compare to last year, but these teams like Boston and some of the higher level teams, the top four teams in the East and the West, we were not competitive to be quite honest with you,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan pointed out. “We gave ourselves a chance on the road. Obviously, at home the game got away from them a little bit (last month), but we gave ourselves a chance here. There are things we can clean up that we have control over and we can do better. We can be more disciplined in a lot of areas.
“There’s no moral victories,” Donovan agreed. “I’m not saying that at all. But there has been growth in competing against the upper echelon teams. I don’t know if it was a missed opportunity, and the reason I say that is we were down by 11, down by six at the half, we had to fight our way back. So we never really got the lead. We had an opportunity to tie it; it didn’t happen. I don’t know if it was a blown opportunity as much as it was an opportunity I felt we lost because there were things we had control over that we didn’t execute well enough, and against a good, elite team you have to do those things.”
Mostly this game the Celtics were better.
The Bulls were without Andre Drummond and Coby White again, Drummond with a shoulder strain that is lingering, and Coby White with a testy quad contusion. Both are uncertain in Toronto Sunday. Lonzo Ball, of course, remains out long term. It is coming up on six weeks since Ball’s surgery and Donovan before the game said he was positive.
“Everything is very optimistic right now,” Donovan said. “I think there are things he’s able to do that he feels a lot freer, that he did prior to the surgery. The biggest part was allowing the incision inside his knee to heal. He has done some running on a treadmill in the water, which is a positive sign. There are things he’s doing that he wasn’t able to do.” Donovan, however, provided no timetable for basketball workouts, practices or playing.
For the Bulls Friday, it was playing mostly uphill, or digging out of a hole, albeit shallow this time after taking their biggest lead of the game at 27-19 in the first quarter. That was primarily due to DeRozan coming off his Bulls low nine points in the win against Charlotte Wednesday. DeRozan had 13 points in the first quarter and was off to his second highest scoring game as a Bull.
“He was just spectacular,” said Donovan. “He’s got like a refuse-to-die attitude and keeps hanging in there and keeps battling and fighting and competing and trying to find ways. Obviously, he made some big time plays and his scoring certainly kept us close and gave us a chance late; he was incredible with what he did tonight.”
Vučević was very, very good with 24 points and 12 rebounds, and especially those late threes to give the Bulls an actual chance when it seemed like the Celtics were a shot away from giving Dalen Terry another look. Though Boston did adjust well from that 18-point loss in Chicago last month, and it lessened the impact Vučević had.
The Celtics are a smallish team, and more so without injured center Robert Williams. The Bulls took advantage of that in that impressive United Center win by driving the ball and getting shots up no matter the target. So then Vučević was able to repeatedly go over mini-Celts for second shots. Vučević had 23 rebounds in that game, 10 offensive that made all the difference. This time the Bulls had a total of four offensive rebounds, three from Vučević.
It did help in the Bulls shooting almost 40 percent on threes as the Celtics concentrated on cutting off driving lanes and falling back inside. Thus Boston had a big 52-34 edge in points in the paint, a lot of which came with Tatum and Malcolm Brogdon beating Bulls defenders off the dribble.
Brogdon’s 25 points off the bench for Boston also flipped the usual Bulls reserves script as Boston had a 41-15 bench margin. Though point guard Brogdon really is a starter talent who with Boston defers to defensive starting point guard Marcus Smart.
That Boston defensive emphasis also had an effect on Zach LaVine, who playing this third in four nights didn’t shoot a free throw until the fourth quarter, and would have the only Bulls free throws other than DeRozan’s.
“They double switch and pack the paint,” noted LaVine. “You could see in the second half, even when we did drive, they collapse across the paint. I’m not getting a lot of isolations, so it’s not like a clear side. Most of it is pick-and-roll or transition, and they’re coming across the lane. I’m trying to make the right play and look for my teammates.”
LaVine finished with 16 points and Ayo Dosunmu had 11. Patrick Williams fouled out with seven points, and on the positive side got to close the game, and on the negative had trouble doing so.
First about LaVine.
He’s not the Zach we’ve been accustomed to seeing, and he knows that, too.
“Obviously, I’m not all the way back yet (from summer knee surgery),” LaVine conceded. “It’s coming. I’m not scared or anything like that. It’s seven games in. I feel fine. Trying to get the rhythm back. If I’m playing I feel good. If we’re having a great game from DeMar, we’re going to play off him. D-Bo was rollin.’”
But LaVine got shots blocked again and didn’t have a dunk. I don’t know where to look it up, but I’ve seen every game LaVine has played in a Bulls jersey and I feel like he’s had shots blocked more already this season than since he’s been with the Bulls combined. It’s not exactly fatal because LaVine is an excellent shooter, as his 20-point fourth quarter against the Nets this week showed. And he’s still quick enough to get to the basket and is active, grabbing seven rebounds and making two steals, his last a brilliant one that almost led to a tie with 22.9 seconds left.
The Celtics were mostly in control of this game after the Bulls had a 31-26 first quarter lead. Alex Caruso drew another of those uncanny getting-over-the-screen offensive fouls and the Bulls made four of eight threes in the quarter. One area of concern: Former Bull Luke Kornet was having an impact with a block and deflection. We don’t see that often.
But this time the Celtics’ reserves were superior, a 13-5 start to the second quarter to take a lead they’d basically have the rest of the game. Kornet blocked a LaVine drive, and the Bulls didn’t reciprocate by putting Kornet in switches to take advantage of, let’s say, the way he appears to be walking like Herman Munster.
The Celtics led 63-57 at halftime, Donovan again took an early challenge and lost, the Celtics went ahead 73-62 on a Smart slam dunk, and then Vučević got postered by Jaylen Brown. It probably would have been over if Caruso and Javonte Green didn’t make late threes to keep the Bulls within 93-87 after three quarters.
Boston again began to ease away to open the fourth quarter, the Bulls failing to score in nine straight possessions to open the fourth and for more than four minutes until a Vučević driving score. He and DeRozan both had 11 points in the fourth quarter. But Boston at nine of 31 on threes was missing wide open ones to start the final quarter, the Bulls still with some chance despite trailing 105-91 with seven minutes left.
Which was when DeRozan and Tatum began their march to the free throw line, DeRozan with those remarkable head and shoulder and pump fakes that no one can figure out after all the years.
“It’s hard because when you are a defender and say, ‘OK, stay down on your feet.’ And then every time single time he goes up and keeps shooting over you, which is what he does do,” explained Donovan. “He’s elite at that, so you feel, 'I’ve got to contest,’ and sometimes you think he’s going to go up and you want to get a hand up, you leave your feet and he’s smart enough to kind of understand when to shot fake and when not to. Because there are times when you think he may shot fake and he doesn’t. I think he knows, ‘OK, I’m at a spot now. I can get this off, I don’t need to shot fake. This is where the defender is, I think I can maybe get myself to the free throw line.’”
Vučević had those threes, and there was a LaVine driving three-point play, and maybe not the famous Brink’s robbery, but the Bulls maybe could steal one.
The Celtics leading 114-112 with 1:07 left got a huge three from Derrick White, who had two points through three quarters. Vučević came right back with his third three pointer popping outside once again to make it 117-115 Boston. It was a heck of a Bulls run, scoring in 12 of 14 possessions after Vučević’s third of the threes. Then came the crucial sequence with Williams in the middle.
Al Horford missed a three, but Williams lost the rebound and Tatum took it away and was fouled. He made one of two, but the Bulls thus lost the chance to go for the tie or lead. Williams then had a layup attempt blocked by Tatum, who tried to get the ball out fast. LaVine cleverly stole the pass and threw to Williams, who missed a three that would have tied the game with 22.9 seconds to play. Williams then fouled out sending Tatum to the free throw line for numbers 19 and 20 and the Boston win.
“I give our guys a lot of credit getting down whatever it was 12 or 13, and we fought our way back and we kept battling,” said Donovan. “I don’t want to pass judgment on Patrick’s play. I want to take a look at it, but I know he was open and I know it was a good pass by Zach. I just felt there were too many things we had control over we needed to execute better that we didn’t; that hurt us tonight.”
DeRozan was terrific, and you could actually see his eyes brighten when Vučević’s three got the Bulls within four with 1:55 left. If you were drawing a thought bubble, it read: “Yes, a chance!”
DeRozan immediately plowed his way to the free throw line for two more.
“We competed,” DeRozan said afterward. “We knew it was going to be tough coming in here, especially just beating them not too long ago. We knew we were going to get their best shot and it came down to self inflicted mistakes we made. They made the least mistakes and pulled out the win. It sucks to lose, but we understand we can do it every single night no matter who it’s against; we’ve just got to keep that confidence and move onto the next one. I didn’t know I got (to the free throw line) that many times until I looked after the game. I was just trying to be aggressive as much as I could.”
So yes it was close, and yes there were some moments, but just because you have a canvass and a brush doesn’t mean it’s art. Sometimes it’s just paint drying.
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