Ten Takeaways from Celtics blowout win vs. Bulls

1. Bounce back win

After an ugly loss to the Bulls on Thursday, the Celtics responded with a 25-point blowout of Chicago in the second game of the home-and-home mini-series.

The Bulls stayed in the game up until the third quarter when Jayson Tatum caught fire and the Celtics never looked back.

Boston does a great job when it comes to bouncing back from a tough game; since the start of last season, the Celtics have a 23-4 record after a loss (including the playoffs).

2. Tatum takeover

Jayson Tatum was a man possessed in this game as he played his best game of the season and recorded his 3rd career triple double with a stat line of 43 points, 15 rebounds, and 10 assists, on 16-24 from the field, and 9-15 from three.

Tatum is only the second player in NBA history with 40+ points, 15+ rebounds, 10+ assists and 9 threes in a game (James Harden in 2016). He only had two free throw attempts.

Once Tatum hit his first three of the game and blew a kiss to the crowd we should have known we were in for a show. Tatum lit up the Bulls from beyond the arc with 7 of his 9 made threes coming in the second half. The third quarter was his magnum opus in this game recording 18 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists on 7-8 from the field and 4-5 from three.

Tatum also did a great job of attacking the basket as the Bulls could not stop him from getting anywhere he wanted to on the court. This lack of defense led to his best play of the night as he was able to get by Coby White with no resistance and rose up to dunk on Jalen Smith.

Tatum’s facilitating might have been the most impressive part of his game as he made some pretty insane passes into tight windows. His best was off of an Al Horford missed three; Tatum got the rebound at the top of the key and threw a fastball to Derrick White in the dunker’s spot for an easy layup.

I think Jayson Tatum just loves playing against the Bulls. In three games against them this season, he is averaging 36.3 PPG, 13 REB, 6.3 AST on 59% shooting and 44% from beyond the arc. A performance like this can really strengthen an MVP campaign.

3. Attacked the basket with authority

The Celtics did a great job of attacking the paint in this game, winning the points in the paint battle 60-38. Boston lost to the Bulls on Thursday by continuing to shoot threes when they were not falling and not going to the basket enough.

This game started differently in the first quarter. Eighteen of the Celtics 28 shots came inside the arc, 11 of which coming at the basket. Boston’s shot distribution in this game paints the picture pretty well as 32 of their 100 shots tonight came directly in the paint.

4. Porzingis cheat code

It’s always nice to have a 7’3” big man who can just shoot over any defender smaller than him. When Kristaps Porzingis gets to the middle of the floor and gets the switch on to a smaller defender, nine times out of ten, he is going end to rise up and hit a shot over the defenders head and there is nothing they can do about it.

Porzingis had a great game on the offensive end with 22 points and 7 rebounds but also did a great job defending Nikola Vucevic. Vucevic is a known Celtics killer and Porzingis limited him from getting to the rim and made a good contest on his attempts.

This was an all-around great game from Porzingis and that’s encouraging to see because when his is playing like this the Celtics are almost impossible to stop.

5. Lockdown defense

The Celtics defense and rim protection has been a topic of conversation this year. In some games, teams have been able to attack them at the paint with no resistance. This game was not one of those nights as Boston was able to protect the rim holding Chicago to 13-35 shooting (37%) in the painted area.

Boston did a great job of limiting the Bulls from getting any momentum. Stopping Zach LaVine was the main catalyst of this, as in their last meeting LaVine torched them for 36 points but he was a non-factor on Saturday, scoring only 14 points on 4-11 shooting. The Bulls bench was also a big factor in Chicago’s win on Thursday but Boston was able to stop them from generating any chance of a comeback.

6. Kornet replaces Springer

With Sam Hauser missing the last two games with injury, the Celtics tried two different players to fill in for his minutes. On Thursday, Jaden Springer got the call in his first extended run of the season he played 13 minutes and didn’t look awful but definitely wasn’t amazing.

Saturday was a different story as Joe Mazzulla put in Luke Kornet over Springer as the 8th man off of the bench. Kornet played a solid game as recorded 4 points and 8 rebounds, was a +10, and was able to play good defense when he was out there with Al Horford.

One of my favorite plays was when he was able to chase Lonzo Ball around the court for seemingly the entire shot clock, forcing Ball to chuck up a missed three.

Jaden Springer did eventually get in the game during garbage time and had a pretty nice and-1 hook shot that had the Celtics bench hyped.

7. Rebounding improvement

In the last game against the Bulls, it felt like every time a team missed a shot someone from Chicago was there to get the rebound which led to them either start a fast break opportunity or get another shot attempt off.

Saturday was different however as it was Boston who were monsters on the glass tonight out rebounding the Bulls 59-43 including 17 offensive rebounds. This led to 25 second chance points for the Celtics and deflated the Bulls at the same time.

This was also a sign that Boston was engaged throughout this game. Payton Pritchard grabbed 2 offensive rebounds in a row to kick it out to Derrick White. White would miss all three shot attempts but it shows how Boston was able to be in the right place at the right time.

Photo by Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images

8. Solid Brown game

It was great to see Jaylen Brown return to form after struggling against the Bulls last time out. Brown finished with 19 points which might not sound impressive, but he was contributing in every part of the game.

He was able to set the tone early on for the Celtics offense, scoring 9 points in the first quarter and establishing the Celtics offensive philosophy of getting to the basket. After playing the entire quarter in the first, Brown was able to finish the half with 15 points and fuel a 7-point lead at halftime. The exclamation point of his first half was when he stole the ball from the Bulls and took it for an emphatic dunk.

In the second half Brown wasn’t looking to score much as Tatum started to go off, so he became a facilitator. Brown had 5 of his 8 assists on the game in the second half and was able to set up Tatum for multiple scoring opportunities.

9. Sneaky good Horford game

Al Horford is the ultimate Swiss Army knife for the Celtics. Some games, they don’t need him to do much more than play good defense and space the floor and other times he ends up carrying the Celtics offense with a hot shooting night. This game was a nice middle ground.

Horford always seemed to be in the right place for Boston in this game as he finished with 8 points and 7 rebounds. In the first half Horford didn’t have any points but was able to play some good defense in double big lineups with Luke Kornet off of the bench. He was able to get up on this block of an Ayo Dosunmu layup and started to score in the second half when Chicago tried to mount a comeback.

10. Positive P

Payton Pritchard’s stat line tonight wouldn’t be the most impressive on first glance, 6 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists on 2-7 shooting, but he made a big impact on this game.

Pritchard played 31 minutes tonight and finished as a +31. Pritchard played some great defense and grabbed timely offensive rebounds that led to Boston getting another opportunity to score. One of his best plays of the night was putting the clamps on Patrick Williams on a fadeaway attempt.

This just goes to show that even if his shot is not falling, Payton Pritchard will find a way to make an impact on the game.