BSJ Game Report: Celtics 124, Bulls 97 - Weirdness overshadows hot-shooting domination of Bulls

Everything you need to know about the Celtics win over the Chicago Bulls, which helped clinch their spot in the knockout round of the In-Season Tournament, with BSJ insight and analysis.

IN A NUTSHELL

A back-and-forth start to the game gave way to an 11-point lead thanks to Boston going 8-16 from 3 and Chicago going 4-11. The Celtics hit almost everything in the second quarter, going 15-19 from the field and 5-8 from 3 to add eight to their lead. They cooled off a little in the third but Chicago couldn't hit a thing and the lead ballooned to 32. It got up to 35 as the Celtics kept their regulars in late into the fourth quarter of a decided game, and they won by 27. 

Box Score

HEADLINES

- IST weirdness: This is the obvious takeaway that I will be addressing separately, but today shouldn’t be about this kind of weirdness. We went from NBA basketball to a sideshow, and for the first time since this tournament began, I felt like it actually took away from the product. 

- Chicago is AWFUL: I cannot stress enough how much of a dumpster fire the Bulls are. They built a team that was held together by Lonzo Ball, and his injury has certainly derailed what was once a promising start to this team’s run. I know this is a Celtics-centric piece, but I can’t help but note that the Bulls are an embarrassment.

- Hot shooting night: Oh yeah, the game. Boston shot 20-49 from 3. They are just unstoppable when three-pointers are falling at this level. The Celtics actually needed a night like this because their shooting has abandoned them a bit recently. There's something good to come out of this that actually pertains to Boston’s future success. 

TURNING POINT

Let's’ go all the way back to the first quarter with the game tied at 13. The game was going back-and-forth and I was wondering if the Celtics were just going to find a way to win a close one so they didn’t have to hit the road again. Instead, they finished the quarter 18-7 and built on the lead from there. Chicago never seriously challenged after that. 

THINGS I LIKED

- Jaylen Brown’s roll continuing: 30 points to lead the C’s, six more assists, and another instance of him giving the ball up and then getting it back for a shot after everyone else touched it (he needs to start making those). It started to get away from him in the fourth, but I’m not really holding this fourth quarter against anyone. It was too weird. 

- Al Horford’s shooting: He needed a game like this. He scored 16 points on 4-6 shooting from 3 to go along with nine rebounds and six of his own assists. 

- A lot of assists: This happens when a team shoots 52% overall on 90 shots. But 36 assists on 47 makes is really great. They moved the ball very well. After some chatter about their lower assist percentage in recent days, this night will help level that number out a bit. 

- Jrue Holiday’s night: He, like Horford, needed a good shooting night. He was 5-8 overall and 4-5 from deep. He also rebounded well (seven of those) and dished nine assists. 

- This Sam Hauser dunk: 

Look at Kristaps Porzingis

I told Hauser in the locker room that I’m sick of asking him about his dunks. Now I wonder what’s next? Off the backboard? A pump reverse? GET SAM HAUSER INTO THE DUNK CONTEST!!!

… sorry. Weird night. I think Michael Keaton might have triggered a gas leak in the vent system.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

- Playing the regulars up 30: It’s really the one thing I didn’t like. The rest was fine. They came out strong, built a lead, got it up to 30, and were set to hand it off to the bench. That's what you want. Amazingly, Joe Mazzulla was able to keep Jayson Tatum to 35:33 of playing time even with all this going on. 

HIGHLIGHTS

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- The tournament, obviously, needs some fixing. I say make it bigger: This is a first attempt at something very new for us here in the U.S. Fans of international basketball and soccer understand the concept a little better, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be some growing pains. 

I have kept an open mind so far because, in reality, all of these have been normal regular-season games until tonight. Yes, they were on different floors, but they were still games that would be played no matter what. 

Tuesday night got weird in the NBA. 

“It’s just weird because it's new, it’s different,” Joe Mazzulla said after the game. “Five, six years from now, this is going to be just normal. … But you see other leagues around the world do it, and I love watching it. So I know three, four, five years from now if I'm still in this thing, I’ll be happy to be a part of it. It's just people have to get used to it.”

That's all true, but that product a few years from now will have to be different than this one. 

I know a few of you right now are already saying “yes, it will be different because it will go away.” And I know that's not going to happen. This thing is here to stay for a little while. We need to get used to that. 

So I think the answer is to expand it. 

The reason why point differential is the tiebreaker in a three-team tie is because there aren’t any other good options. And because there are only four games in group play, there are a lot of ties.

That means there's a lot of running up of scores, and that's something that has to actually go away. So unless there's going to be a filter for when garbage time begins and teams can actually play their bench units without worrying about the points, expanding the tournament is the best option. 

That way, teams can play each other multiple times. Good teams can pile up good records, and lesser teams can lose an extra game or two, and ties aren’t as prevalent. Then, with more games, say maybe eight instead of four, they can get creative with the cumulative scoring where it lessens the need for single-game piling on. 

I think the plan was always to make it bigger anyway. The league is going to try to sell the rights to this thing at some point. I think going bigger makes it more interesting and less frustrating. 

There's something here that will actually work, I think. This first iteration isn’t quite it. 

Next up: The Celtics get a couple of days off before hosting the Philadelphia 76ers.