Before being welcomed by Chicago’s freezing nine-degree temperatures on Saturday, the Celtics had their work cut out for them.
There wasn’t much room for rest after Friday’s trip to the city that never sleeps. It took two overtime periods to overcome the Nets, leaving less than 24 hours to prepare to do it all over again against the Bulls. Fatigue predictably surfaced at various points throughout the night, especially considering the Celtics had four players — Jaylen Brown, Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and Anfernee Simons — log close to 40 minutes in Brooklyn.
However, the locker room isn’t giving itself a pass following Boston’s 114-111 loss in Chicago.
“Obviously, those things can play a factor, but we’re not gonna give ourselves any of those types of excuses,” Simons told reporters, per NBC Sports Boston.
Boston failed to defend the perimeter, as the Bulls connected on 21 3-pointers — a stark contrast from Chicago’s average of 14.6 made threes per game this season, and tied for the most allowed by the Celtics all year. That’s typically not an issue for coach Joe Mazzulla’s team, and it hasn’t been in recent seasons. Only nine times this season have the Bulls hit 20 or more threes in a game, making it a rare, albeit dangerous, occurrence that showed up against Boston at the worst possible time.
Chicago’s leader in made threes, Colby White, hit four of his five makes either off the dribble or by pulling up in transition. White challenged Boston’s ability to switch and fight through screens, and he wasn’t the only one. Matas Buzelis, Isaac Okoro, and Ayo Dosunmu were among the others who actively hunted 3-point makes in motion, too, either in transition or off the dribble. And several times, the Celtics found themselves either late or lost as the Bulls collected clean look after clean look, establishing a theme that stuck until the end.
It was clear that outshooting Chicago wouldn’t work as Boston finished 15 of 47 (31.9%), but luck really proved to forsake the Celtics once the closing seconds arrived.
The Bulls missed seven consecutive 3-point attempts in the final 5:09, bringing the game to a 111-111 tie with 24 seconds remaining. Odds suggested that another three wouldn’t be Chicago’s most favorable option, but it was the exact option that crumbled Boston’s defense — one final time. Kevin Huerter settled in the left corner — the same spot where Hugo González hit his clutch overtime three in Brooklyn — and sank the go-ahead basket, leaving Boston almost no time to respond.
In Brooklyn, it was an all-or-nothing three that gave the Celtics new life; in Chicago, the exact same look drained the life right out of them.
Boston went from the energized team refusing to come up short against the Nets to watching the Bulls play an UNO Reverse card, flipping the energy and drive in their favor.
The situation wasn’t a favorable one for Boston, and even though missing a doctor-recommended seven-plus hours of sleep might have factored in, the team couldn’t care less. The standards Mazzulla’s locker room holds itself to won’t change, no matter the circumstances. Blaming tiredness or the uncontrollable NBA schedule isn’t their forte — in fact, it’s the opposite. The Celtics have prided themselves on flipping the script all season, from the offseason to Jayson Tatum’s injury to questions about the organization’s priorities and intentions to compete.
The Celtics aren’t going to feel sorry for themselves, even if it were warranted.
“We know we came here to play a game, and we came here fully expecting to win, no matter the cost, no matter what obstacles we had to go through before the game — the night before, it doesn’t really matter,” Simons told reporters. “We’ve got to come together and win a ballgame. That’s the attitude we have. Even in our meeting today, we were like, ‘We don’t care about any circumstances we had to deal with. We just want to come in here and find a way to win.’”