Doc Rivers had said to pay no attention to the state of the struggling team that visited TD Garden last night, that the Bulls of last spring were more than a harrowing playoff memory.
Later, after the Celtics [team stats]’ sixth home loss of the season was certified by a 25-point Luol Deng classic, the coach had to wish he wasn’t so right. His shorthanded team, playing its sixth game in nine days and the fourth in five, fell a little too decisively in a 96-83 loss to the Bulls.
Undermanned or not, the C’s played as if their game never made it on board Wednesday night’s flight from New Jersey.
There were plenty of bad signs, but perhaps the most glaring was their performance from the most uncontested spot on the floor, where they shot 15-of-28 from the free throw line - one of the worst games in memory.
It was as good a place as any for Rivers to start.
“Let’s hope, you know, let’s hope,” he said of whether those struggles from the line resulted from the just-completed grind. “It could’ve been. We were missing them early.”
But giving too much credence to the current schedule would have also been a little too easy.
The opportunities to win were almost countless. As poorly as the C’s played - and it was hard to single out a solid stretch - they had a chance to take the game until the Bulls put on a finishing 13-6 kick over the last 4:53.
“It was so many opportunities,” Rivers said. “Just take away the free throws. That’s what I kept telling the coaching staff in the timeouts. I didn’t say, ‘We’re playing horrible.’ But I said, ‘As bad as we’re playing, we’re two stops away and we can win this game.’ ”
Paul Pierce [stats], still attempting to work his left knee back into shape, made a solid attempt to take charge, finishing with 20 points, eight rebounds and six assists despite tight coverage from Deng - one of the toughest to guard the C’s captain.
“We played mostly in spurts tonight,” Pierce said. “We would go on a run and cut the lead to five or six, and then it was like our energy went away. They’d get an offensive rebound, or we’d gamble and turn the ball over and kind of kill the momentum. We just didn’t have the consistency all night.”
Despite a pair of Eddie House jumpers within the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, the Celtics couldn’t crack the two-possession barrier.
When Kendrick Perkins [stats] missed a free throw that would have converted a three-point play, leaving the Celtics behind 75-71 with 8:06 left, Deng came back with his 25th point off a jumper.
Deng’s bucket triggered a 6-0 Chicago run for an 81-71 lead.
Pierce’s trey from the top of the circle with 3:51 left cut the Bulls lead to 86-80. But the next time down he forced a miss over Joakim Noah, Rajon Rondo [stats] was blocked by Taj Gibson the following possession, and Noah punctuated the stretch with two free throws for an 88-80 Bulls lead with 2:17 left.
Derrick Rose split the lane for a 90-80 lead 29 seconds later.
As if to accentuate the theme of the night, Pierce missed the first of two free throws with 1:43 left. This team wasn’t going anywhere, at least not last night.
“They came out and jumped us from the start,” said Perkins, who finished with a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double to go along with five blocks. “They were hitting us first, instigating. We were retaliators. They just came out with it on their minds that they were going to beat us, and they did.”
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