December 19, 2024 • 21 mins
We’re sounding off after the Chicago Bulls surprised the Boston Celtics by beating the C’s at their own game. Chicago nearly matched Boston in 3-point attempts, and the Bulls made theirs at a much higher clip. What is there to take away from this one? Should fans hit the panic button? Should the Celtics attempt fewer 3-pointers? Is it revenge time for Boston Saturday night in Chicago? We discuss it all right here.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Down off with me, folks on the Chicago Bulls beating
the Boston Celtics at their own game. That is what
happened Thursday night at TV Guard and listen. We all
know the Boston Celtics are built around the three point line,
that is the offense, and tonight it just did not
carry them through. It did, however, carry the Chicago Bulls through.
(00:28):
Boston shot fifty plus three pointers. Chicago shot fifty plus
three pointers, but only one team made them at a
high rate. That was Chicago made thirty seven percent of
its three pointers while the Celtics made only twenty five
percent of its three pointers. And that was the difference
(00:50):
in this game. So the Celtics got beat at their
own game. That does not happen very often. Okay, this
is only the third time this season that the Celtics
have made less than thirty percent of their three pointers.
So it's a rare instance instance where a team that
is a great shooting team simply does not shoot the
(01:12):
ball well as a unit. There are nights when some
guys don't shoot the ball well. There are nights when
other guys don't shoot the ball well, But very rarely
is there a game for this Celtics team where basically
everyone doesn't shoot the ball well, and that is what
happened tonight, and that's what opened the door for Chicago
(01:33):
to walk on through and listen, the Celtics came out
of the gates and they looked rusty, like they this
is only their second game that they played in eleven days,
that is thanks to the layoff here that happened because
of the NBA Cup, And even in the last game,
the Celtics did not look great out of the gates.
(01:55):
The same can be said for the game rewinding back
against the Detroit roy Pistons the first game during that
NBA Cup lull. They didn't look very good at the
first quarter, but they figured it out the rest of
the game. Tonight was just one of those nights where
they didn't look good. They looked rusty. They looked completely
out of rhythm at both ends of the court for
much of the game and in particularly during the fourth
(02:16):
quarter when the going got tough and one team was
gonna pull away and the other team was going to
suffer the l And during this game, listen, there were
only a couple of moments that were really kind of
like positives that you can take away from this For
the Boston Celtics, the first was in the first quarter.
Jason Tatum looked great, his second consecutive game where he
(02:36):
scored at least eleven points. During the first quarter, he
scored twelve during the opening frame. You're feeling good as
the Celtics team. As a Celtics fan, you gotta feel
good after that. You see your star player taking over
during the first quarter, kind of setting the tone. You think, Okay,
you know, maybe we're not playing our best as a
unit right now, but it's gonna fall online because he's
(02:57):
playing great. Then in the second quarter, it was all
about Christas Porzingis. He scored twelve points during the second quarter,
was dominating every mismatch that he got. I think he
shot four of six from the field during that quarter.
As I said, scored twelve points. So yet again, another
guy playing well during the quarter. Not everyone else was though.
(03:17):
At the same time, you had one guy scoring at
a high rate, but the rest of the team wasn't
able to keep up. So again you're just thinking to
your mind, Okay, Tatum did it during the first quarter,
Porzingis did it during the second quarter. At some point
all of the other guys are gonna click around them
at the same time, and Boston's going to pull away.
(03:38):
Never happened, and one of the reasons is because of
Zach Levine. Like he was excellent tonight finished this game
with I believe Gabe high thirty six points. He was excellent,
six of eleven from three point range, eleven of nineteen
from the field.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
He was great.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
He looked like vintage Zach Levine tonight. Had that burst,
had that athleticism. He made some incredibly difficult three pointers,
like step back off the dribble, highly challenged shots that
he just dropped through the net. So listen at that point,
you take your cap off, you tip it, and you say,
(04:15):
zach Lavine, you're playing at a higher level than basically
all of the Celtics. And that's simply put. That is
what happened during this game. Zach Levine was the best
player on the court, no questions asked. So Zach Lavine
was hot during the first half that wound up keeping
Chicago in this game. I think he had twenty two
(04:37):
points during the first quarter. So the Celtics, you know,
not putting it together as a unit, but had a
couple individual performances that you thought.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Was gonna have them pull away.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
No, Zach Levine kept Chicago in it, and then during
the second half he continued to play at a high level.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Now, still.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
The Celtics had a shot to win this game in
the fourth court. This game was tight throughout, but then
during the fourth card I believe it was a seventeen
to four run or seventeen to three run for Chicago
to open the fourth quarter. That's when they started to
gain some momentum. Yet here we are midway through the
fourth quarter and the Celtics still have a shot. They
were down by nine, and then they rattled off six
(05:15):
straight points, the first three off Derek White getting fouled
on a three pointer. Bang bang, Bank makes all three pointers.
Down to six. Boston gets a stop, then they have
a beautiful possession on offense. Peyton pridge of the ball
is swinging around the perimeter. Peyton Pritchard gets it on
the right wing. He easily could have taken the three pointer,
but he gives one more pass into the right corner
(05:37):
and Jalen Brown strokes a three, swishes it home, cuts
the deficit down to three. So at that point there's
five plus minutes left in the game. It's a three
point game. Celtics just rattled off sixth straight. You're thinking, okay,
here they come. They're finally catching their rhythm, and then
they kind of lost their temper. Joel Mizula called for
(05:57):
a technical foul, which he set out after the game.
It was called because he stepped out to the court.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
He owned it.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
He was on the court probably you know, five six
seven feet onto the court during the stoppage when a
foul was called. He was arguing the call and he
said he was called for a technical because he was
on the court. Then seconds later, Jalen Brown also called
for a technical foul. He said after the game the
reason he was called for the tech is because he
told the referee that he gave a technical foul to
(06:28):
Joe Mizula for no reason. The ref told Jalen, if
you say it again, I'm going to give you a
technical foul. In Jalen apparently set it again. So there's
two technical fouls. Chicago makes both of the free throws,
so it goes from a three point game to a
five point game. Then shortly thereafter, Jason Tatum called for
a technical foul.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
All of these points matter.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
You're playing in a close game down the stretch, in
a game where you do not have your high level
a game on that night as a team, so every
point matter. You're trying to squeeze out a win on
a night when you don't have your best. Every point matters,
and the Celtics gave away three of them during the
fourth quarter, and that changed the energy in the building.
(07:12):
Sometimes those texts can go in the other direction. Joe
Mizoula's talked about it. Sometimes he kind of begs for
a technical because he wants to change the energy and
inspire his team to make a run. Tonight, those three
technicals did the Celtics in It changed the vibe in
the arena. Not to say that everyone felt great at
that time, but they were feeling pretty good after those
(07:33):
six straight points, and it's a three point game when
the Celtics weren't playing great.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
But then you get those texts.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
You give away two points and you give another one
away later on, and it just felt uneasy in the arena,
like everyone knew. Those plays changed the game. So down
the stretch, the Celtics just weren't able to make the
plays they lost their cool a little bit with those
technical fouls, and they just weren't able to battle back
(08:01):
and make it a game after that. However, I will
say this that Peyton Richard made a late three pointer
that with five seconds left or something like that, off
a miss three pointer by Jordan Walsh. That three pointer
brought the Celtics to within nine, which was the final margin,
one seventeen to one oh eight. So that hey glass
(08:23):
half full. That prevented the Celtics from losing their first
game of the season by double digits, So they still
have not lost a game by double digits. The other
number that I'll throw out there is that this was
the first time all season that the Celtics lost a
game by more than six points. So the first five
losses of the season were all by six or fewer points.
(08:44):
This is the first one that came by more than that. So,
you know, not to say that, you know, that's not
a victory, that's not a moral victory or anything or
anything like that. But if you can get through the
whole season without losing by ten or more points, you're
a pretty good team. So let's see if the Celtics
can continue that. All right, we're gonna die. We've got
three fans sounding off tonight after this loss. Jeff is
first up on Boston's three point shooting, which was not
(09:07):
pretty tonight. Then we've got Boston Sports Bros. On their
ten thousand foot view of this loss. And then lastly,
we've got Charlie Gesner sounding off on the rematch that's
scheduled for these two teams forty eight hours from now
out in Chicago. So let's dive into our first one here.
This one's coming in from Jeff. All right, Jeff is
(09:30):
first up with our first comment of the night. He says,
I hate to say it, but their insistence on shooting
the three did them in. They actually had the advantage
in the paint most of the game, so that makes
it even worse. The two games and eleven days probably
didn't help either. Yet, they were rusty, there's no doubt
(09:50):
about it. You can't beat around the bush. That's not
to say that they did anything wrong in the time off,
but they just didn't have it Tonight they'll get the
rhythm back.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Not worried about that. Let's talk about the three pointers.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Okay, So the Celtics take fifty six the Bulls take
fifty two. So the Celtics did what they always want
to do. They want to take more threes. Chicago stayed close, though,
gotta give them credit, and this is the variance game. Okay,
Chicago's not known as one of the elite three point
shooting teams in the league, but tonight they are pretty
darn good. If you take fifty plus three pointers and
(10:24):
you make thirty seven percent or better of them, you're
gonna have a really good shot of winning any game. Okay,
that's what the Celtics want to do on a nightly basis,
But tonight they only made twenty five percent of them.
That's the Celtics fourteen for fifty six. Not a good night. However,
I do want to comment on this because Jeff is
saying that's what did them in. I've got two things. One,
(10:48):
you gotta trust yourself. You gotta trust yourself that you're
gonna make them eventually. This is a team that has
a track record of having players up and down the
roster who can put the ball through the net at
a pretty decent clip from long range. So that's number one.
You gotta trust in yourself and your skills. And by
the way they did attack the basket during the fourth quarter.
(11:11):
I gotta look it up here to see how many
points in the paint they scored during the fourth but
it felt like it was a pretty decent clip. It
was only eight points in the paint, not quite as
many as Chicago was driving to the basket at will.
The defense was kind of falling apart apart for Boston,
but eight points in the paint during the fourth quarter.
It felt like Jason Tatum was getting to the rim
(11:32):
when he got in, but the rest of the team
was kind of settling from long distance. But again, if
I'm the Celtics, I'm always gonna trust in my skills.
I'm gonna trust in what the majority of my season
has looked like, and that's a team that is one
of the, if not the most prolific three point shooting
team in the league. Steph Curry's not gonna not shoot
(11:52):
three pointers at the end of the game because he
shot poorly the first three quarters. He's gonna keep shooting
because that's what good sh shooters do, and the Celtics
are a team of good shooters, so that's what they
were doing. They were trusting in themselves. I understand it's
frustrating when they don't go in. They did not go
in tonight. However, you gotta give them that leeway. That's
(12:15):
what they do tonight. They lost while doing it. They
just didn't shoot the ball well. The second thing that
I will say about not shooting three pointers is kind
of what Jeff is getting to hear. The Celtics got
back into this game because they did take three pointers.
As I just mentioned, they were down by nine, then
they cut it to six when Derek White got fouled
(12:37):
on a three pointer, so that attempt from long range
took three points off the board, and then they worked
the ball around. As I said, Peyton Pritchard, one more
pass over into the corner to Jalen Brown and he
splashes at home and making a make.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
That makes it a three point game. So the Celtics
got back into.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
This because of the three point line, and who knows,
if they didn't commit those technical fouls, who knows what
would have happen. It might have been what won them
the game. So you know, the game has a lot
of variants. Some nights, most knights, the Celtics are going
to be great. Few nights they're going to be below
average or poor. Tonight they were below average or poor
(13:17):
from long range. But you would think at some point
they were going to snap out of it. They tried to,
they almost did getting back into this game, but they
didn't do it enough to be able to win this game. So, Jeff,
we appreciate the comment. I totally understand where you're coming
from on the insistence of shooting three pointers. But again,
(13:37):
if that's what you do, that's what you should always do,
don't get away from it. That's my perspective. I think
that's a Celtics perspective, and that definitely.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Is Joe Mizoula's perspective. All right.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Next up, Boston Sports Bros. Is sounding off on this
loss with it as I said at ten thousand foot View,
and here it is, they laid an egg in the
fourth quarter and lost composure with technicals bound to happen
over the course of an eighty two game season. Not concerned,
all right, Boston Sports Bros. Sounds like you're pretty level
headed here. I appreciate that it doesn't happen much after losses.
(14:13):
I mean, you can go into my post on acts
after this game read through. There are a lot of
comments that might seem like the world is melting and
the world is burning down for the Boston Celtics, it's not.
As Boston Sports Bros. Says here, a game like this
is bound to happen over the course of eighty two games.
I just want to say, can we not feel privileged
(14:37):
here as Celtics fans that this was the twenty seventh
game of the season and this is the first time
the Celtics have had I guess you could turn this
as a clunker. They lost by nine. They lost by
nine points. It's not like they lost by thirty twenty five. Yes,
(14:59):
I give it, they didn't play very well. But if
a nine point game, a nine point loss is your clunker,
you're living a pretty good life, not only as the
team and the players, but as a fan.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Let's not act too privileged here.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Okay, the Celtics are human, These guys are They're all
human on the team as a unit. Sometimes they're gonna
have nights where they don't play well. Tonight they didn't
play great. We all know that. They know that, and
they lost because of it. They still somehow had a
chance to win. They weren't able to pull it out.
But I mean, you still you're twenty seven games in
(15:39):
and you still haven't lost by ten or more points.
That's pretty crazy. I haven't looked around the league, but
I'd be surprised if more than one or two other
teams have accomplished that at this point. So pretty impressive
from the Celtics to even have a chance to win
this game where they didn't play well. But to Boston
Sports Bros. Point, this is one of eighty two. It's
(16:03):
bound to happen at some point in the season that
the Celtics just don't play very well and lose.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
And they only lost by nine. It's not that bad,
I promise, all right.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Last up, our comment of the night is from Charlie Gessner,
and here it is. Charlie says, a lot of rust,
poor defense in a red hot levine. You don't show up,
you don't win Friday night in Chicago. It's Saturday night
in Chicago. Should be very interesting. Those teas didn't help
(16:35):
down the stretch either. All right, let's go one by
one here. A lot of russ We've already talked about
that the Celtics have not played a lot of games
here over the last couple of weeks, and I think
you could see it.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
There was some rust in there.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Jason Tatum came back in the last game against Washington
hadn't played in a week. Al Horford came back tonight,
hadn't played in a week. The team in general has
only played a few games over the course of fourteen
or so days, so there's not been a lot of
actual basketball games happening for this team, and they looked rusty.
Can't beat around the bush. They looked rusty tonight. Poor defense.
(17:10):
I will counter that slightly with what Joe Mazula said
after the game. He thought that they played very good
defense during the first half, but it was the second
half where things got away. He said that the Boston's
misses on offense seemed to take away some of their
effectiveness effort ability to slow the Bulls down at the
other end. So those misses for the Celtics at one
(17:30):
end kind of infected the defense at the other end.
You can't allow that to happen consistently throughout the season.
Celtics have been pretty good defensively, I wouldn't say elite
so far this season, but you cannot allow that type
of trend to continue where the offense affects the defense,
so let's keep an eye out for that as we
move forward. Red hot Levine. Absolutely, he was the best
(17:53):
player on the court tonight. There's no question about that.
This is a guy who's made All Star teams. He's
an excellent player. He's a play that much of the
league might be looking around and saying, that's a guy
that we would like to have on our side right now.
Zach Levine is talented. He can take over a game,
and that's what he did tonight. He did it from inside,
he did it from outside. Just a great performance from
(18:15):
Zach Levine. Next up, next comment, you don't show up,
you don't win. Yeah, okay, Chicago. I said this earlier
in the week to some people here in the office
talking about these games coming up for the Celtics. I said,
Chicago has talent. Now, that team doesn't necessarily match up
very well against the Celtics. I don't think, like if
they matched up in a playoff series, I don't think
(18:37):
it's a great matchup for Chicago. But Chicago has talent
on that team. Zach Levine. Nicole Lavuchavi like, you've got
high end talent on that team. Kobe White, Patrick Williams.
These are players who I think a lot of teams
around the league would like to have as one off
players on their roster. Tonight, they put it together. They
(18:58):
played well as a unit, while the Celtics did not.
So this is the NBA unless you're playing against the
very bottom of the league, which the Bulls are not.
By the way, they're hovering around five hundred this season.
It's not as bad as you might think out there
in Chicago for the Bulls. They've been pretty solid team
so far this season. But this is the NBA. So
unless you're playing the bottom feeders of the league, if
(19:21):
you don't play well, you've got a very high probability
of losing a game.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Tonight. That happened for the Celtics. They didn't play well.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Chicago, which does have talent, did play well in Chicago.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Wound up winning.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
So in the next comment and the last one, we're
gonna touch on here, Saturday Night in Chicago should be
very interesting. Yes, it should, because these two teams are
gonna match up yet again Saturday night out in Chicago.
It is a rematch, and something tells me the Boston
Celtics are are gonna want to clean up what they
did tonight, Joe Miszoola Satiday after the game. Fifteen or
(19:55):
twenty possessions is what they need to find and what
they need to clean up in turn and push it
in the other direction in order for them to come
out on top in the next game Saturday night. They
are going to be motivated and they are going to
want to get back into the win column.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
So listen, I said to someone next to me.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
I said in the media section at the end of
the game, I said, I wouldn't be surprised if the
Celtics walk into the United Center out there in Chicago
and they wind up with a pretty dominant win on
Saturday night.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
They're going to be starving for it after this game.
They did not play well.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
This was their worst game of the season, and they
are gonna want to clean it up and turn the
table back in the other direction Saturday night in Chicago.
So after that game, we will have another episode of
sound Off. It will only be the audio version because
it is an away game. But I appreciate you guys
listening tonight watching tonight after the game Saturday, please check
(20:47):
out my post on social on x respond with your thoughts,
your feelings.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
I'm gonna pick a few and.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
I'll have them in the next episode of sound Off
with the Boston Celtic. So again, thanks for listening. I
appreciate you being a part of this
Speaker 2 (20:59):
And look for to talking to you again Saturday night.
Down off with me, folks on the Chicago Bulls beating
the Boston Celtics at their own game. That is what
happened Thursday night at TV Guard and listen. We all
know the Boston Celtics are built around the three point line,
that is the offense, and tonight it just did not
carry them through. It did, however, carry the Chicago Bulls through.
(00:28):
Boston shot fifty plus three pointers. Chicago shot fifty plus
three pointers, but only one team made them at a
high rate. That was Chicago made thirty seven percent of
its three pointers while the Celtics made only twenty five
percent of its three pointers. And that was the difference
(00:50):
in this game. So the Celtics got beat at their
own game. That does not happen very often. Okay, this
is only the third time this season that the Celtics
have made less than thirty percent of their three pointers.
So it's a rare instance instance where a team that
is a great shooting team simply does not shoot the
(01:12):
ball well as a unit. There are nights when some
guys don't shoot the ball well. There are nights when
other guys don't shoot the ball well, But very rarely
is there a game for this Celtics team where basically
everyone doesn't shoot the ball well, and that is what
happened tonight, and that's what opened the door for Chicago
(01:33):
to walk on through and listen, the Celtics came out
of the gates and they looked rusty, like they this
is only their second game that they played in eleven days,
that is thanks to the layoff here that happened because
of the NBA Cup, And even in the last game,
the Celtics did not look great out of the gates.
(01:55):
The same can be said for the game rewinding back
against the Detroit roy Pistons the first game during that
NBA Cup lull. They didn't look very good at the
first quarter, but they figured it out the rest of
the game. Tonight was just one of those nights where
they didn't look good. They looked rusty. They looked completely
out of rhythm at both ends of the court for
much of the game and in particularly during the fourth
(02:16):
quarter when the going got tough and one team was
gonna pull away and the other team was going to
suffer the l And during this game, listen, there were
only a couple of moments that were really kind of
like positives that you can take away from this For
the Boston Celtics, the first was in the first quarter.
Jason Tatum looked great, his second consecutive game where he
(02:36):
scored at least eleven points. During the first quarter, he
scored twelve during the opening frame. You're feeling good as
the Celtics team. As a Celtics fan, you gotta feel
good after that. You see your star player taking over
during the first quarter, kind of setting the tone. You think, Okay,
you know, maybe we're not playing our best as a
unit right now, but it's gonna fall online because he's
(02:57):
playing great. Then in the second quarter, it was all
about Christas Porzingis. He scored twelve points during the second quarter,
was dominating every mismatch that he got. I think he
shot four of six from the field during that quarter.
As I said, scored twelve points. So yet again, another
guy playing well during the quarter. Not everyone else was though.
(03:17):
At the same time, you had one guy scoring at
a high rate, but the rest of the team wasn't
able to keep up. So again you're just thinking to
your mind, Okay, Tatum did it during the first quarter,
Porzingis did it during the second quarter. At some point
all of the other guys are gonna click around them
at the same time, and Boston's going to pull away.
(03:38):
Never happened, and one of the reasons is because of
Zach Levine. Like he was excellent tonight finished this game
with I believe Gabe high thirty six points. He was excellent,
six of eleven from three point range, eleven of nineteen
from the field.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
He was great.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
He looked like vintage Zach Levine tonight. Had that burst,
had that athleticism. He made some incredibly difficult three pointers,
like step back off the dribble, highly challenged shots that
he just dropped through the net. So listen at that point,
you take your cap off, you tip it, and you say,
(04:15):
zach Lavine, you're playing at a higher level than basically
all of the Celtics. And that's simply put. That is
what happened during this game. Zach Levine was the best
player on the court, no questions asked. So Zach Lavine
was hot during the first half that wound up keeping
Chicago in this game. I think he had twenty two
(04:37):
points during the first quarter. So the Celtics, you know,
not putting it together as a unit, but had a
couple individual performances that you thought.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Was gonna have them pull away.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
No, Zach Levine kept Chicago in it, and then during
the second half he continued to play at a high level.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Now, still.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
The Celtics had a shot to win this game in
the fourth court. This game was tight throughout, but then
during the fourth card I believe it was a seventeen
to four run or seventeen to three run for Chicago
to open the fourth quarter. That's when they started to
gain some momentum. Yet here we are midway through the
fourth quarter and the Celtics still have a shot. They
were down by nine, and then they rattled off six
(05:15):
straight points, the first three off Derek White getting fouled
on a three pointer. Bang bang, Bank makes all three pointers.
Down to six. Boston gets a stop, then they have
a beautiful possession on offense. Peyton pridge of the ball
is swinging around the perimeter. Peyton Pritchard gets it on
the right wing. He easily could have taken the three pointer,
but he gives one more pass into the right corner
(05:37):
and Jalen Brown strokes a three, swishes it home, cuts
the deficit down to three. So at that point there's
five plus minutes left in the game. It's a three
point game. Celtics just rattled off sixth straight. You're thinking, okay,
here they come. They're finally catching their rhythm, and then
they kind of lost their temper. Joel Mizula called for
(05:57):
a technical foul, which he set out after the game.
It was called because he stepped out to the court.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
He owned it.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
He was on the court probably you know, five six
seven feet onto the court during the stoppage when a
foul was called. He was arguing the call and he
said he was called for a technical because he was
on the court. Then seconds later, Jalen Brown also called
for a technical foul. He said after the game the
reason he was called for the tech is because he
told the referee that he gave a technical foul to
(06:28):
Joe Mizula for no reason. The ref told Jalen, if
you say it again, I'm going to give you a
technical foul. In Jalen apparently set it again. So there's
two technical fouls. Chicago makes both of the free throws,
so it goes from a three point game to a
five point game. Then shortly thereafter, Jason Tatum called for
a technical foul.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
All of these points matter.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
You're playing in a close game down the stretch, in
a game where you do not have your high level
a game on that night as a team, so every
point matter. You're trying to squeeze out a win on
a night when you don't have your best. Every point matters,
and the Celtics gave away three of them during the
fourth quarter, and that changed the energy in the building.
(07:12):
Sometimes those texts can go in the other direction. Joe
Mizoula's talked about it. Sometimes he kind of begs for
a technical because he wants to change the energy and
inspire his team to make a run. Tonight, those three
technicals did the Celtics in It changed the vibe in
the arena. Not to say that everyone felt great at
that time, but they were feeling pretty good after those
(07:33):
six straight points, and it's a three point game when
the Celtics weren't playing great.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
But then you get those texts.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
You give away two points and you give another one
away later on, and it just felt uneasy in the arena,
like everyone knew. Those plays changed the game. So down
the stretch, the Celtics just weren't able to make the
plays they lost their cool a little bit with those
technical fouls, and they just weren't able to battle back
(08:01):
and make it a game after that. However, I will
say this that Peyton Richard made a late three pointer
that with five seconds left or something like that, off
a miss three pointer by Jordan Walsh. That three pointer
brought the Celtics to within nine, which was the final margin,
one seventeen to one oh eight. So that hey glass
(08:23):
half full. That prevented the Celtics from losing their first
game of the season by double digits, So they still
have not lost a game by double digits. The other
number that I'll throw out there is that this was
the first time all season that the Celtics lost a
game by more than six points. So the first five
losses of the season were all by six or fewer points.
(08:44):
This is the first one that came by more than that. So,
you know, not to say that, you know, that's not
a victory, that's not a moral victory or anything or
anything like that. But if you can get through the
whole season without losing by ten or more points, you're
a pretty good team. So let's see if the Celtics
can continue that. All right, we're gonna die. We've got
three fans sounding off tonight after this loss. Jeff is
first up on Boston's three point shooting, which was not
(09:07):
pretty tonight. Then we've got Boston Sports Bros. On their
ten thousand foot view of this loss. And then lastly,
we've got Charlie Gesner sounding off on the rematch that's
scheduled for these two teams forty eight hours from now
out in Chicago. So let's dive into our first one here.
This one's coming in from Jeff. All right, Jeff is
(09:30):
first up with our first comment of the night. He says,
I hate to say it, but their insistence on shooting
the three did them in. They actually had the advantage
in the paint most of the game, so that makes
it even worse. The two games and eleven days probably
didn't help either. Yet, they were rusty, there's no doubt
(09:50):
about it. You can't beat around the bush. That's not
to say that they did anything wrong in the time off,
but they just didn't have it Tonight they'll get the
rhythm back.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Not worried about that. Let's talk about the three pointers.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Okay, So the Celtics take fifty six the Bulls take
fifty two. So the Celtics did what they always want
to do. They want to take more threes. Chicago stayed close, though,
gotta give them credit, and this is the variance game. Okay,
Chicago's not known as one of the elite three point
shooting teams in the league, but tonight they are pretty
darn good. If you take fifty plus three pointers and
(10:24):
you make thirty seven percent or better of them, you're
gonna have a really good shot of winning any game. Okay,
that's what the Celtics want to do on a nightly basis,
But tonight they only made twenty five percent of them.
That's the Celtics fourteen for fifty six. Not a good night. However,
I do want to comment on this because Jeff is
saying that's what did them in. I've got two things. One,
(10:48):
you gotta trust yourself. You gotta trust yourself that you're
gonna make them eventually. This is a team that has
a track record of having players up and down the
roster who can put the ball through the net at
a pretty decent clip from long range. So that's number one.
You gotta trust in yourself and your skills. And by
the way they did attack the basket during the fourth quarter.
(11:11):
I gotta look it up here to see how many
points in the paint they scored during the fourth but
it felt like it was a pretty decent clip. It
was only eight points in the paint, not quite as
many as Chicago was driving to the basket at will.
The defense was kind of falling apart apart for Boston,
but eight points in the paint during the fourth quarter.
It felt like Jason Tatum was getting to the rim
(11:32):
when he got in, but the rest of the team
was kind of settling from long distance. But again, if
I'm the Celtics, I'm always gonna trust in my skills.
I'm gonna trust in what the majority of my season
has looked like, and that's a team that is one
of the, if not the most prolific three point shooting
team in the league. Steph Curry's not gonna not shoot
(11:52):
three pointers at the end of the game because he
shot poorly the first three quarters. He's gonna keep shooting
because that's what good sh shooters do, and the Celtics
are a team of good shooters, so that's what they
were doing. They were trusting in themselves. I understand it's
frustrating when they don't go in. They did not go
in tonight. However, you gotta give them that leeway. That's
(12:15):
what they do tonight. They lost while doing it. They
just didn't shoot the ball well. The second thing that
I will say about not shooting three pointers is kind
of what Jeff is getting to hear. The Celtics got
back into this game because they did take three pointers.
As I just mentioned, they were down by nine, then
they cut it to six when Derek White got fouled
(12:37):
on a three pointer, so that attempt from long range
took three points off the board, and then they worked
the ball around. As I said, Peyton Pritchard, one more
pass over into the corner to Jalen Brown and he
splashes at home and making a make.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
That makes it a three point game. So the Celtics
got back into.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
This because of the three point line, and who knows,
if they didn't commit those technical fouls, who knows what
would have happen. It might have been what won them
the game. So you know, the game has a lot
of variants. Some nights, most knights, the Celtics are going
to be great. Few nights they're going to be below
average or poor. Tonight they were below average or poor
(13:17):
from long range. But you would think at some point
they were going to snap out of it. They tried to,
they almost did getting back into this game, but they
didn't do it enough to be able to win this game. So, Jeff,
we appreciate the comment. I totally understand where you're coming
from on the insistence of shooting three pointers. But again,
(13:37):
if that's what you do, that's what you should always do,
don't get away from it. That's my perspective. I think
that's a Celtics perspective, and that definitely.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Is Joe Mizoula's perspective. All right.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Next up, Boston Sports Bros. Is sounding off on this
loss with it as I said at ten thousand foot View,
and here it is, they laid an egg in the
fourth quarter and lost composure with technicals bound to happen
over the course of an eighty two game season. Not concerned,
all right, Boston Sports Bros. Sounds like you're pretty level
headed here. I appreciate that it doesn't happen much after losses.
(14:13):
I mean, you can go into my post on acts
after this game read through. There are a lot of
comments that might seem like the world is melting and
the world is burning down for the Boston Celtics, it's not.
As Boston Sports Bros. Says here, a game like this
is bound to happen over the course of eighty two games.
I just want to say, can we not feel privileged
(14:37):
here as Celtics fans that this was the twenty seventh
game of the season and this is the first time
the Celtics have had I guess you could turn this
as a clunker. They lost by nine. They lost by
nine points. It's not like they lost by thirty twenty five. Yes,
(14:59):
I give it, they didn't play very well. But if
a nine point game, a nine point loss is your clunker,
you're living a pretty good life, not only as the
team and the players, but as a fan.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Let's not act too privileged here.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Okay, the Celtics are human, These guys are They're all
human on the team as a unit. Sometimes they're gonna
have nights where they don't play well. Tonight they didn't
play great. We all know that. They know that, and
they lost because of it. They still somehow had a
chance to win. They weren't able to pull it out.
But I mean, you still you're twenty seven games in
(15:39):
and you still haven't lost by ten or more points.
That's pretty crazy. I haven't looked around the league, but
I'd be surprised if more than one or two other
teams have accomplished that at this point. So pretty impressive
from the Celtics to even have a chance to win
this game where they didn't play well. But to Boston
Sports Bros. Point, this is one of eighty two. It's
(16:03):
bound to happen at some point in the season that
the Celtics just don't play very well and lose.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
And they only lost by nine. It's not that bad,
I promise, all right.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Last up, our comment of the night is from Charlie Gessner,
and here it is. Charlie says, a lot of rust,
poor defense in a red hot levine. You don't show up,
you don't win Friday night in Chicago. It's Saturday night
in Chicago. Should be very interesting. Those teas didn't help
(16:35):
down the stretch either. All right, let's go one by
one here. A lot of russ We've already talked about
that the Celtics have not played a lot of games
here over the last couple of weeks, and I think
you could see it.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
There was some rust in there.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Jason Tatum came back in the last game against Washington
hadn't played in a week. Al Horford came back tonight,
hadn't played in a week. The team in general has
only played a few games over the course of fourteen
or so days, so there's not been a lot of
actual basketball games happening for this team, and they looked rusty.
Can't beat around the bush. They looked rusty tonight. Poor defense.
(17:10):
I will counter that slightly with what Joe Mazula said
after the game. He thought that they played very good
defense during the first half, but it was the second
half where things got away. He said that the Boston's
misses on offense seemed to take away some of their
effectiveness effort ability to slow the Bulls down at the
other end. So those misses for the Celtics at one
(17:30):
end kind of infected the defense at the other end.
You can't allow that to happen consistently throughout the season.
Celtics have been pretty good defensively, I wouldn't say elite
so far this season, but you cannot allow that type
of trend to continue where the offense affects the defense,
so let's keep an eye out for that as we
move forward. Red hot Levine. Absolutely, he was the best
(17:53):
player on the court tonight. There's no question about that.
This is a guy who's made All Star teams. He's
an excellent player. He's a play that much of the
league might be looking around and saying, that's a guy
that we would like to have on our side right now.
Zach Levine is talented. He can take over a game,
and that's what he did tonight. He did it from inside,
he did it from outside. Just a great performance from
(18:15):
Zach Levine. Next up, next comment, you don't show up,
you don't win. Yeah, okay, Chicago. I said this earlier
in the week to some people here in the office
talking about these games coming up for the Celtics. I said,
Chicago has talent. Now, that team doesn't necessarily match up
very well against the Celtics. I don't think, like if
they matched up in a playoff series, I don't think
(18:37):
it's a great matchup for Chicago. But Chicago has talent
on that team. Zach Levine. Nicole Lavuchavi like, you've got
high end talent on that team. Kobe White, Patrick Williams.
These are players who I think a lot of teams
around the league would like to have as one off
players on their roster. Tonight, they put it together. They
(18:58):
played well as a unit, while the Celtics did not.
So this is the NBA unless you're playing against the
very bottom of the league, which the Bulls are not.
By the way, they're hovering around five hundred this season.
It's not as bad as you might think out there
in Chicago for the Bulls. They've been pretty solid team
so far this season. But this is the NBA. So
unless you're playing the bottom feeders of the league, if
(19:21):
you don't play well, you've got a very high probability
of losing a game.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Tonight. That happened for the Celtics. They didn't play well.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Chicago, which does have talent, did play well in Chicago.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Wound up winning.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
So in the next comment and the last one, we're
gonna touch on here, Saturday Night in Chicago should be
very interesting. Yes, it should, because these two teams are
gonna match up yet again Saturday night out in Chicago.
It is a rematch, and something tells me the Boston
Celtics are are gonna want to clean up what they
did tonight, Joe Miszoola Satiday after the game. Fifteen or
(19:55):
twenty possessions is what they need to find and what
they need to clean up in turn and push it
in the other direction in order for them to come
out on top in the next game Saturday night. They
are going to be motivated and they are going to
want to get back into the win column.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
So listen, I said to someone next to me.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
I said in the media section at the end of
the game, I said, I wouldn't be surprised if the
Celtics walk into the United Center out there in Chicago
and they wind up with a pretty dominant win on
Saturday night.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
They're going to be starving for it after this game.
They did not play well.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
This was their worst game of the season, and they
are gonna want to clean it up and turn the
table back in the other direction Saturday night in Chicago.
So after that game, we will have another episode of
sound Off. It will only be the audio version because
it is an away game. But I appreciate you guys
listening tonight watching tonight after the game Saturday, please check
(20:47):
out my post on social on x respond with your thoughts,
your feelings.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
I'm gonna pick a few and.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
I'll have them in the next episode of sound Off
with the Boston Celtic. So again, thanks for listening. I
appreciate you being a part of this
Speaker 2 (20:59):
And look for to talking to you again Saturday night.
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