The Bulls shot the lights outThe Celtics missed a ton of opportunities The Celtics couldn’t grab a late reboundDerrick White stayed cold Boston’s bigs were in rough shape

The Celtics hung around, frankly, more than I expected considering they were playing their third game in four night and a back-to-back after a double overtime game. But they had their chances, and just couldn’t cash in as the Bulls made one more play to hold on for the 114-111 win. 

The Bulls came out blistering hot from three, scoring 30 points, but the Celtics scored 28 to keep up. The second quarter belonged to Anfernee Simons (10 points) and Jaylen Brown (nine points), and they went up six at halftime. Coby White got hot and the Bulls three-point barrage continued while Boston cooled off and fell behind by three going into the fourth. The Celtics took a brief lead, and they had it tied with 14 seconds to go, but Kevin Huerter hit a three in the left corner to win the game for Chicago. 

Here are five reasons the Celtics lost to the Bulls. 

The Bulls shot the lights out

At its best, the Celtics defense shuts down the paint and allows above-the-break three-pointers to the other team’s worst shooters. At its worst, the Celtics allow a ton of three-pointers all over the floor, teams get hot, and the Celtics get buried under an avalanche of triples. 

Chicago shot 21-45 from three, hitting six of them in all but the second quarter. 

Want to guess which quarter the Celtics won? 

The Celtics won some important margins, taking 14 more shots, scoring 13 more points off turnovers, four more second chance points, and 10 more points in the paint. They gave themselves opportunities to in, but …

The Celtics missed a ton of opportunities 

The Bulls actually missed eight three-pointers in a row in the fourth quarter and only scored twice in the final 5:26 of the game. Unfortunately for Boston, they only scored three times. The Celtics were 3-11 in that stretch, 0-4 on three-pointers.

Pritchard missed badly on a 10-footer he makes all the time.  Sam Hauser missed an open corner three (which Derrick White cleaned up). Brown missed a couple of tough but makeable mid-range shots.

They had chances but couldn’t take advantage. 

The Celtics couldn’t grab a late rebound

The Bulls had four offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter. They had zero second chance points, but what it really prevented was Boston getting out and running and getting more scoring chances. I know the Celtics missed most of the opportunities they got, but they just needed one more to fall. 

Derrick White stayed cold 

White finally got going in the fourth quarter, which he tends to do no matter what, scoring 10 points on 3-5 shooting (2-4 3pt). But the Celtics needed more than five points on 2-13 shooting (1-7 3pt) through the first three quarters. 

White is going through yet another January slump, an unfortunate tendency for him. The good news is that he tends to break out of those eventually. 

Boston’s bigs were in rough shape

The Celtics started Amari Williams, even though a sick Neemias Queta was listed as available on the injury report. Williams struggled a bit in his early minutes, but Joe Mazzulla turned to Luka Garza as the first sub, make it seem as if Queta was only available in a pinch. 

That pinch game when Garza turned his left ankle. He played through it later in the game, but with Williams playing a bit passively and Garza figuring out his ankle, the Celtics turned to Queta and mostly rolled with him. I guess it was like a bottle of wine where once you open it, you might as well finish it.

That’s the rule, right?

Queta was okay but not anything near his normal self. Garza was less okay. They combined for 10 points on 4-10 shooting, five rebounds, and two blocks. Queta also had two steals. 

OTHER NOTES

Jaylen Brown was great, scoring 33 points on 14-28 shooting. He only had two turnovers, but one was costly. You could see him mouthing “come on man” to himself when he was laying on the floor after the second one. The Bulls spent a lot of time single-covering him to keep him from distributing the ball. He also finished with eight rebounds and five assists. Anfernee Simons had 21 points on 8-16 shooting, 5-11 from three. Maybe he could have been on the floor in the last five minutes. The Bulls had eight players in double figures. The only player to take the floor and not hit double-digits was Josh Giddey, was just getting back from an injury and was on a minutes restriction. Outside of Giddey, who was 0-2 from three, every other Bull hit at least two. The Celtics were playing their third game in four nights.