I have lived long enough to have seen plenty of terrible Celtics teams so while this season's edition is nowhere close to the worst record-wise, they have to be the softest of any that I can remember. No matter how seemingly hopeless their opponent is, Boston can still find a way to not only lose to them but get blown out. This evening at the United Center, the Bulls (28-39 overall, 13-20 home) swept the season series with the Celtics (35-32 overall, 14-19 away) thanks to a breeze of a 121-99 victory. As always, two of Boston's top players were out: Jaylen Brown (ankle) and Robert Williams (turf toe?) missed the game but that is still no excuse for suffering the millionth embarrassing loss of this cursed season to a non-playoff club. It was a very costly loss for the C's too since coupled with Miami's (36-31) 121-112 win vs. Minnesota (20-47), it dropped Boston down to seventh-place (aka the start of the Play-In tournament range) in the Eastern Conference.
Chicago is in 11th place in the East but they look like a playoff team when they have run into the Celtics this season. Center Nikola Vucevic had a triple-double with 18 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists and two steals while point guard Coby White (25 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists) and shooting guard Zach LaVine (25 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals) combined for 50 points. Our old German friend Daniel Theis added nine points and eight rebounds for the Bulls. In terms of margin of defeat, this was the biggest road loss of the season for the Celtics and they really drove that point home as they got outscored in every single quarter. Boston's point guard Kemba Walker had a game-high and completely useless 33 points while swingman Evan Fournier added 17 points and six rebounds in the depressing no-show.
There are only five games left in the regular season for the C's and their next two-both at TD Garden vs. the Heat-will go a long way to determining whether they have to slum it at the Play-In Tournament or they can sneak by and grab anywhere from the fourth to the sixth seed. The two most important contests of the year are Sunday afternoon (1, ABC) and Tuesday (7:30, NBC Sports Boston) against Miami who is .500 (16-16) on the road this season. Thanks to a postponed game, the only time that the Celtics and Heat have met this season was more than four months ago: a 107-105 road win by the Celts in Miami on January 6. I can't recall much from that matchup but looking back at it now, it was without a doubt one of Boston's best wins of the season. The Heat have been very up and down all season, much like the Celtics but as long as Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro are all healthy and playing, it's hard to pick Boston over the team that wiped the floor with them in the Eastern Conference Final last season at the Orlando bubble.
No comments:
Post a Comment