What’s Going Wrong for the Celtics?
The Celtics are down 2–0 to the 8th seeded Bulls. How did we get here?
The top seeded Boston Celtics find themselves down 2–0 in the first round against the eighth seeded Chicago Bulls. Boston dropped its second straight home playoff game on Tuesday, where they were embarrassed by a score of 111–97.
This was not supposed to happen. The Celtics were the team to take out LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers once and for all. They should be up 2–0 instead of the other way around.
What happened? Well, a lot of things. To put it simply, the Bulls are playing some of their best basketball right now and nothing is working for the Celtics. But let’s dig a little deeper to find a solution.
Tragedy Struck
The elephant in the room is that Isaiah Thomas’ sister was killed in a car crash on Saturday morning. This was a true tragedy, and it is impossible to imagine how Thomas is feeling. While Thomas has dealt with it as best he can, it has taken a toll on the locker room. Players were shook by witnessing their teammate in so much pain.
You’d expect a team to rally around their teammate and play with inspiration, but it’s not always that simple. This Celtics team is very close knit, so it isn’t like the rest of the roster can just shake it off.
Boston has looked completely lifeless in the first two games of the series. It seems like their minds are on something else. Some things are more important than basketball, and the death of Chyna Thomas is definitely an underlying issue that goes beyond the X’s and O’s.
Robin Lopez and Rebounding
Lopez has been a menace to the Celtics so far in this series. In two games, he is averaging six offensive rebounds per game. That is nuts. Boston’s biggest weakness all season has been rebounding, and Lopez has become arguably the best player in this series by exploiting that.
The Bulls have out-rebounded Boston 96–74 in the first two games. Lopez has attracted so much attention in the front court that Rajon Rondo, Jimmy Butler, and Dwyane Wade have had much more space to get to the rim. Those three players were the Celtics’ biggest concern coming into this series, and Lopez has caused Boston to lay off the Bulls’ big three.
Game 2 was much better for the Celtics on the glass, but they can’t let the issue come back in games three and four. Teams are much harder to beat when they get more shots than you. The Bulls have taken 179 shots compared to Boston’s 168.
Prime Time Rondo
Rondo has always played well in big games. Celtics fans knew this going in, but there hasn’t been an answer for the Celtic great. Here are his stat lines from the first two games:
Game 1: 12 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals
Game 2: 11 points, 9 rebounds, 14 assists, 5 steals
Boston used to enjoy playoff Rondo, but now they are feeling the true pain he caused to other teams. He has controlled the flow of each game completely, which has always been his greatest basketball attribute. It’s hard to give Rondo a ton of defensive attention because of Wade and Butler. This is a tough situation because Rondo at his best is truly a nightmare.
Solution
The Celtics need to look themselves in the mirror here and come together to take out such a worthy foe in the Bulls. Chicago is a talented, experienced bunch that seems to be getting everything right at the perfect time. The only reason these games have been close is because the Celtics are purely the better team.
Everyone on the roster has something to prove. None of them have gotten out of the first round of the playoffs besides Al Horford, but that isn’t anything to write home about. Rebounding, turnovers, and defense have been issues in the series, but the reason the Celtics are down 2–0 is far beyond that.
Boston isn’t faced with an impossible task. The 1993 Suns faced a similar deficit and went on to lose to Michael Jordan in the NBA Finals. There are a lot of things the Celtics need to change before game 3 on Friday. If there is one thing I know about this team, it is that they will not go quietly. The series lead the Bulls have built will only make this matchup more interesting.
