The biggest question was answered rather quickly.
Would Wednesday night’s loss to Detroit effect the team tonight? It didn’t – at all.
In fact, it gave them some motivation to get right quickly. The Celtics have yet to lose back-to-back games after 24 games and wanted to re-establish that home loses will be rare.
Jimmy Golen of Yahoo sports…
Kevin Garnett….”When we lose, we want it to be very, very, very, very few, and we want to learn from what mistakes we made in the loss and apply it in the next game. I thought we did a good job of that.”
That’s 4 ‘verys’ and only 3 losses so far.
The Celtics went back to their now well established pattern of going up big (20 points at one point) in the first half (56-41 at halftime) and holding on for the rest of game. The lead got as high as 29 before all was said and done. The Bulls did not challenge and did not lead the entire game. They looked lifeless at times. They hardly looked like a Scott Skiles coached team.
Unlike the last game, the Celtic bench contributed in abundance offensively, led by James Posey’s 11 first half points largely due to 3-3 from downtown. It gave the team a lift and helped deflate the Chicago Bulls. Glen Davis played well after a poor outing against Detroit. He was quite active, especially on defense, leading the Celtics with 3 blocks and adding 2 steals.
The team’s 12 steals were led by 7 footer Kevin Garnett’s 4.
Tony Allen played a good all around floor game and was one of 6 Celtics in double figures with 12 points to go with 5 rebounds, and 3 steals.
Eddie House was active defensively and added 4 assists in a much better showing than he had against Detroit. Kendrick Perkins was 4-5 with 4 rebounds and a block in 20 minutes.
Ray Allen looked sharp shooting once again, finishing with 18 points on 6-14 attempts.
Rajon Rondo, the tough rebounding PG, tied with Pierce and Garnett for team high with 7 rebounds. He added 4 assists and 7 points, while keeping captain Kirk in check all night.
Kevin Garnett finished with 12 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists in a well rounded performance of only 25 minutes. Only Ray Allen played big minutes with 37. Pierce got his 22 points in 27 minutes.
In fairness, the Bulls outrebounded the Celtics 27-16 in the 2nd half, thanks in large part to Tyrus Thomas’ 9 boards in only 16 minutes
The Celtics held the Bulls to only 41 points again in the 2nd half and won going away, in spite of the rebounding disparity. The second unit played most of the 4th quarter and did very well, especially defensively, as they won the quarter 20-15.
Though the Bulls record is terrible (9-14 coming in), they were 7-4 over the last eleven games before facing the Beantown Ballers. They left the arena looking more the 2-10 team that started the season than the 7-4 team of late.
The Ben Wallace-less Bulls were out rebounded by 30-13 in the first half, as Paul Pierce led the way with 7. Aaron Gray had a second consecutive career high game point-wise (14) but he is not a solid rebounder. Nor are the rest of the Bulls apparently, save for Tyrus Thomas tonight.
The Celtics held Detroit to .355 FG% from the field to the Cs .443.
Paul Pierce is normally locked up by Luol Deng and is usually held to season lows when they meet. Tonight Paul led the team with 22 points on 6-11 shooting, and blew up in the 3rd quarter with 15 points and was 4-4 from three point land. Instead, Luol Deng could only add 8 points and Heinrich was manage only 2 points for the evening. The Celtics defense was again dominant.
So it looks like the team has taken the Detroit loss to heart but it have used it correctly. They rebounded well from it and ran over a regrouping play-off team from last year. Boston did run as they had 19 fastbreak points to the Bulls 8.
The Bulls outscored the Celtics 34-26 in the paint, but it didn’t matter as the Celtics had the game well in hand for most of the night.
Next up for the Celtics are the Orlando Magic at home on Sunday at 6:30pm. This is another measuring stick as they play one of three teams to beat them in a rematch. It is also a chance to see how well they regroup.
In many ways a game like that is much better for the team than a blow out like tonight among other games. The pressure and adversity are good things to help this team grow into a play-off contender.
