C’s boarded in Chicago
Lopsided rebound battle proves pivotal
CHICAGO — The Celtics fancy themselves a tough outfit, willing to go elbow-to-elbow with anyone in the NBA when it comes to effort and grit.
But last night they got kicked in the glass.
The Celts shot 50 percent from the floor and held the Bulls to 39.1 percent, and still they managed to trail by as many as 15 and lose, 105-99.
That’s because Chicago outrebounded them, 5536. Eighteen of the Bulls’ boards were on the offensive end, a figure they translated into 16 more field goal attempts than the C’s and an 18-5 edge on second-chance points.
“It hurt us all night,” said Jae Crowder. “We’ve got to do better at it, more focus . . .
“I’m not in a good mood right now. We lost the game in a fashion that we didn’t want to lose it. I feel like we got punked all night.”
All two nights of the season, actually, if one goes back to Wednesday’s opener when the Celts managed to win by five despite surrendering 15 offensive rebounds and 23 extrachance points to the Nets.
“We only turned it over (12) times,” Brad Stevens said of this one, “so that’s the obvious place where they’re getting their possessions are on the glass. That’s going to be the No. 1 thing. It’s something that we’ve talked a lot about, and we’ve got to get better at it.”
The Celts made a nice, cosmetic comeback in the last quarter, but it wasn’t enough to overcome their failure to secure the defensive boards.
Dwyane Wade had 22 points in his Chicago homecoming, and Jimmy Butler went for 24. Old pal Rajon Rondo went 1-for-9 with nine assists.
Wade and Butler each hit 4-of-6 3-pointers, which is noteworthy in the case of the former because Wade made just 7-of-44 from behind the arc all of last season.
“I don’t think anybody on the team thought he was going to make four 3-pointers,” said Crowder.
“Ah, man, that hurt,” said Isaiah Thomas, who led the Celts with 25 points. “That hurt, because we just couldn’t get over the hump. We did what coach wanted us to do, but I think we gave them too many dare shots.
“They usually don’t hit 3’s like they did tonight, but I think anybody can hit 3’s when there’s no contest. I think we’ve just got to do a better job of contesting shots, even though teams like that, you want them to shoot outside shots.”
Before a crowd of hoop diehards, White Sox refugees and Cubs fans who couldn’t be alone as they awaited tonight’s Game 3 of the World Series, the Celtics just didn’t have enough at the end — or for most of the evening.
The game was all but over when Butler drove to give the Bulls a 95-81 lead with 7:04 left. But just as the Celts had let their foot off the gas the previous night against Brooklyn, the home team went cold while the visitors kept hustling.
Chicago went scoreless for 3:45, and Thomas had six points in an 11-0 run to make it a three-point game. The margin was down to just two on a pair of Al Horford free throws with 1:04 left, but Wade threw in a 3-pointer for 104-99 lead with 26 seconds to go.
Jaylen Brown got caught in the air and turned the ball over on the ensuing possession, and that was just about it.
“I was looking for an outlet,” said the C’s rookie, who had some nice moments on the way to eight points in 20 minutes. “I should have just shot the ball, but I was thinking it was a bad shot. I should have made a play.”
And Thomas was thinking he should have made more than 2-of-6 free throws, particularly after bricking a pair in the fourth quarter.
“Yeah, I mean (expletive) happens,” he said, “but that was weird. I’ll fix that, though. That won’t happen again. That was big. That hurt. I’m very upset with myself.”
Thomas was upset, too, with how things unfolded late in the first half when Crowder rebounded a Wade miss and collided with Butler as he turned up the floor. As Crowder tried to get up, Butler appeared to trip him. That brought the teams together, with Rondo and Butler both doing single-arm shoves at Thomas amid much jawing.
After a video review, the officials decided on an offensive foul for Crowder and technicals for Crowder, Thomas, Butler and Rondo.
“I was just in there, and Rondo pushed me, so I’m not going to let anybody push me,” Thomas said. “I don’t know. I’ve got to do a better job of controlling myself and just walk away.”
And it’s clear after two games, as well, that the Celtics have to do a better job at controlling the defensive boards and finishing off possessions.