The good news is Marcus Smart is NOT out for the season, at least not yet. So far x-rays have been negative meaning his ankle is only sprained. Rondo was out for tonight's game because he was having a screw removed from his hand. Since the Celtics are off the next two days, he figured it would be better to miss one game than multiple. So no Rose, no Rondo and no Smart meant an epic battle between Evan Turner and Kirk Hinrich. Somehow, Turner won the battle. The Bulls jumped out to a 25-20 lead after one but the Celtics put their foot on the gas to outscore the Bulls 36-16 in the second quarter. How? The Celtics FINALLY played some defense....for one quarter at least. You would think the Celtics would fall apart in the 3rd....they didn't. They outscored Chicago 27-26 in the 3rd to lead 83-67. THEN the Bulls started to come back. Once again the Celtics couldn't slam the door but this was due to exhaustion more than anything. Coach Brad Stevens refused to go 12 man deep on the bench even without Rondo and Smart. Guess who led the Bulls comeback? THIS GUY:
Yessire Bob, Aaron Brooks....AARON BROOKS replaced the ineffective Hinrich and had 26 points and 8 assists. The Celtics still led 95-78 with 6:06 left before the wheels fell off. Brooks hit a floater, Turner missed a shot and Jimmy Butler grabbed the rebound. Butler then scored on an alley-oop from Joakim Noah. Green then nailed a wide open 18 footer to make it 97-82 with 5 minutes left. Butler missed a shot and Olynk gobbled up the rebound...only to be called for traveling with 4:24 left. Brooks hit a fallaway and Green was stripped by Hinrich. Butler's next shot missed and Olynk picked up another rebound but was called for an offensive foul which wiped out a basket. Who picked up the charge? You guessed it, Aaron Brooks. Pressey entered the game for Turner and Noah hit a putback to make it 97-86 with 3:33 left. Zeller was stripped by Hinrich and was given a timeout much to the chagrin of Brad Stevens who claimed he never has possession. The refs were caught up in the emotion as Noah bullied by Green to tip home a miss by Brooks to make it 97-88 with 3 minutes left. Sullinger entered back in and missed a shot, rebounded by Noah. Brooks bricked a deep three but the ball landed in Noah's hands who tipped it around until Brooks got a second chance for a 3 and buried it with 2:15 left. Stevens called time with 2:03 left and what was once a 95-78 lead was down to 97-91 in just 4 minutes. On commentary Brian Scalabrine said somehow, someway SOMEBODY has to make a play. Evan Turner stepped up by burying a jumper with 1:49 left. Brooks answered with another 3 due to shoddy defense from Bradley. Turner missed, Olynyk missed the tip and Butler came down with the rebound as the United Center crowd went wild. Brooks was fouled by Olynyk with 1:02 left. Aaron hit both free throws to cut the lead 99-96. Olynyk was fouled shooting by Gasol and Kelly bricked the first. He did hit the second to make it 100-96 with 45 seconds left. Brooks drove right by Pressey and hit a layup with 37 seconds left. Brooks by himself damn near erased a 17 point lead. With the game on the line, Turner missed a layup but Olynyk grabbed the rebound in traffic and threw it out to Bradley. Turner was fouled by Brooks with 17 seconds left. Evan calmly hit both free throws. Butler missed on the other end and Olynyk got the rebound. Brooks fouled out and Olynyk hit the clutch free throws to make it 104-98.
Then the game got really stupid. Gasol hit a meaningless shot at the buzzer and was fouled, but the refs had to review if he got it off in time. A hundred hours later they decided it counted and Gasol hit the free throw to make it 104-101. Then for some reason Stevens took timeout to draw up a play. Even his own players were like "What are you doing?" The game was over really....there was less than a second left. All you had to do was inbound the ball. Sure enough, they got it in to Green who was fouled by Butler with .2 seconds left. Green hit the final 2 free throws and thankfully that was it. 106-101 the final. Good grief, if you want to make the game shorter...how about eliminating some timeouts and overcoaching?
Bawful report:
Thankfully not much. Phil Pressey sucked a fat one as he was just 1 for 7 from the field for 3 points plus was abused by Aaron Brooks, although he did have 4 assists, 3 rebounds, a steal and a block. Gerald Wallace just missed out on 13 TRILLION by hitting a free throw and getting a rebound. Why Brad Stevens also needed to take a timeout to draw up a play with 0.8 seconds left when all someone had to do was inbound the damn ball is anyones guess. Now for the nightly awards. Rajon Rondo, Vitor Faverini and Marcus Smart all get checkmarks for the Ellison. Dwight Powell graduated from the Ellison to the DNP-CD and was joined by James Young. Still don't know why James Young isn't getting any playing time unless he's goofing off at practice. He better not be the next Joe Forte.
Were there any positives? A lot actually. The Celtics shot 51.7% as a team against a Tom Thibodeau defense.
They also shockingly out-rebounded the Bulls 45-38 even with Noah and Pau Gasol. They also owned a 20-15 free throw advantage. Marcus Thornton lit it up off the bench with 11 points and a rebound. Tyler Zeller stepped up with 10 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. Jared Sullinger had a quieter game than usual but still had 10 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Kelly Olynyk had another double-double with 18 points, 11 rebounds along with a block and an assist. Avery Bradley had 13 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 assists and a block. Brandon Bass wasn't great but had 7 points, 2 rebounds and a steal. Our hero of the night was also the last two jackasses, Evan Turner.
Turner had 19 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds, shutting down Hinrich in the process. THIS is the kind of performance expected out of a number 2 overall pick. Lastly, which Jeff Green showed up?
This one's a toss-up. He had 14 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals....which is pretty much average given his level of talent, but it was on par with the team effort last night. We'll call this a No-Decision.
Final Thoughts: Yes the Bulls were missing Rose but the Celtics were also down Rondo and Smart, so in essence the Celtics showed more guts than Chicago. They faded down the stretch again but this time they had to make the shots they needed to. They shot 51.7% from the field, hit most of their free throws and won on the road on the second night of a back to back. Aaron Brooks was unstoppable and that's more on Turner and Pressey's defense than it was anything else. Still, a win is a win by any means necessary. This puts the Celtics at 3-3 on the season and the next game is this Wednesday night against Oklahoma City. Normally I'd say that's a loss, but the Thunder are missing both Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. If there was a time to beat them, it would be now.
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