Bitter break for Celts
Butler’s freebies lift Bulls
CHICAGO — Marcus Smart heard Jimmy Butler’s voice first, not referee Zach Zarba’s whistle.
“When Jimmy shot the ball I heard him scream, ‘No foul?’ ” said Smart while slumped in front of his locker last night as teammates filed out to begin the All-Star break. “As soon as he said that the whistle blew and I looked. And I saw him raise his hand up with the foul. And I just couldn’t believe it. But he made the call, so you have to live with it.”
Most of the Celtics had started to celebrate when the referee suddenly interrupted with his whistle. Butler, under tight coverage from Smart, missed the 18-footer with Smart’s left fingertips in the vicinity of the Chicago forward’s shooting elbow. Zarba, standing on the baseline, watched the shot hit the rim before making the call.
Butler made both free throws to lift Chicago from one back to one ahead, and the Celtics were hit hard by their last game before the midseason break, a 104-103 loss to the Bulls at the United Center.
The Celtics were ahead 103-100 with 1:30 left.
Later, Butler told the Chicago media that he felt Smart touch his elbow.
Asked if he made contact with Butler, Smart initially said, “No comment.” The more he thought about it, the more frustration set in.
“No matter what I would have said, it wouldn’t have changed it,” he said. “They already made the call. As we know you can’t go back and review that call. So it was a call. So really not much for me to say. At that point we still had time left to still come back and try to get a victory. So the last thing I needed was to get a technical and get them the ball back plus the free shot.”
The Celtics had time, barely, with nine-tenths of a second on the clock. The result was a desperation air ball by Al Horford from the left wing as the buzzer sounded.
The Celtics played poorly enough to earn this loss, most notably on the interior, where they were outrebounded by a 51-31 margin, and also surrendered 22 second-chance points.
That was all forgotten by the time the whistle blew.
Celtics coach Brad Stevens, who could be seen shouting at Zarba from the sideline, was sufficiently controlled later. When asked if he heard the whistle, he said: “I never heard one.”
Isaiah Thomas, who finished with 29 points, came more to the point.
“Horrible call,” he said. “Did you (see it)? Did you think it was a foul? It was a bad call. It cost us the game. It cost us the game. That’s horrible.”
Thomas and the rest of the Green were celebrating what seemed, at first, like a crowning moment to close out the first half.
“I thought we won. I ran on the court,” he said. “I might have been the first one on the court, and then you see him raise his hand up like it was a foul. The Bulls were even shocked. That’s horrible, man, when it costs you a game you should have won. That’s a bad call.”
The call ended what, to the Celtics’ thinking, was another strong crunch time performance. It was only their second loss in the last 13 games.
All Smart could think about was a play he made on Butler that actually was allowed.
Doug McDermott had cut the Celtics lead to 103102 with two free throws at 1:26 left. Butler blocked Thomas with 1:10 left, then grabbed an offensive rebound down the other end to keep the ball in Chicago’s hands. Smart came over the top of Butler for a steal, and though Thomas missed with 8.4 seconds left, the Bulls had only a sliver of time for Butler to make something work.
He took the ball on the right side, Smart stepped out, and the forward’s shot lined off the front of the rim. Zarba’s late whistle truncated the celebration.
The Celtics returned to the locker room and watched the replay, with its various angles, over and over. All the Celtics consoled Smart on what they thought was a clean defensive play.
Thinking back to his steal of Butler on the previous possession, Smart got angry.
“It was a big letdown. Especially for me. I’m one of the best defenders in this league,” said Smart. “I played helluva great defense right there. I know I did. I moved my feet. I did everything right. My hands were up. I got punished for playing good (defense), I guess.”