It was the Celtics’ third straight loss and their tenth in the 15 road games they’ve played thus far.  It was also the fourth straight game in which the C’s allowed 100 points or more, their longest such streak since a six-gamer at the tail end of the 2010 season.

With a record of 12-12, the Celtics are at .500 for the first time since November 21.

The Bulls received commendable performances from several players, most notably Joakim Noah, whose 11 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists registered as his second career triple-double.  Luol Deng and Carlos Boozer chipped in 21 points apiece, with the former going 11-12 from the charity stripe and the latter adding 12 rebounds and 2 blocks.

Nate Robinson, Taj Gibson, and Jimmy Butler combined for 37 points off the bench, going 15-27 from the field along the way.  Robinson’s contributions had the greatest impact; he scored 12 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter, netting 9 off three triples that keyed a five-minute 14-2 Chicago run.  That stretch saw the Bulls extend their lead from 9 points to 20, forcing Doc Rivers to pull his starters and cede victory to the home team.

The Celtics’ bench, meanwhile, managed a paltry 16 points off 4-24 shooting in a combined 99 minutes of action.  Jason Terry was the anti-Nate: he produced just two field goal attempts and one make in 26 minutes of floor time.  The Celtics were outscored by 18 points while he was on the court.

Kevin Garnett tallied all 10 of his points and all but one of his 8 rebounds in the first half.  Paul Pierce added 16 points and didn’t turn the ball over once.  Courtney Lee kicked in 14, though 8 of those came in the final minutes of the fourth quarter when the game was well out of hand.

The Bulls attacked the basket early and often, generating the bulk of their offensive production through high-percentage shots.  26 of their 28 first-quarter points came from within the paint or off free throws.  By game’s end, they had scored 48 from up close and 21 from the line.  Overall, they hit exactly half of their field goal attempts and all but three of their free throw attempts.

Opponents appear to have adjusted to the perimeter blitzing and trapping that the Celtics have used over the past couple of weeks to stifle ball-handlers and the offenses they run.  In the seven games prior to their current losing streak – a stretch that Doc indicated as an example of the trap paying dividends – the Celtics allowed 92.4 points per game, six points fewer than their season average of 98.0.  In the three games since, they’ve allowed 101.3.

The Bulls in particular seemed adept at using crisp ball movement to exploit the trapping scheme.  Per CSNNE’s A. Sherrod Blakely, “Boston’s style of play defensively simply didn’t work primarily because the opponent played with greater, more steady effort … the on-the-floor result was a lot of open looks for the Bulls shooters as the Celtics defenders were consistently a step or two slow in rotating out.”

Bonus Tracks

The Celtics produced at least one highlight during the game.  With 3:48 left in the second quarter, Brandon Bass drove baseline off a terrific back-spin and sank an improbable two-handed, overhead, no-look flip shot, and the foul.

It looked pretty impressive on TV.  Not so much, apparently, in real life.  Four of Bass’ teammates watched the play dispassionately from the sidelines, like a clique of jet-setting Casanovas taking in a striptease at some third-rate topless joint in upstate New York.

Did you ever see that movie Heat?  Rajon Rondo has.

The Celtics will look to right the ship tonight as they return to the TD Garden to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Or, simply, the Mavs will look to keep their recent hot streak going tonight as they square off against the Boston Celtics.  After winning four of the season’s first five games, Dallas endured a prolonged three-week stumble, losing eight of their next 11, before righting the ship with another 4-1 stretch.  They’ve come out on top in their last three tries, with road victories over the Suns and Rockets prefacing Monday night’s 119-96 home thrashing of the Sacramento Kings.

The Mavs are doing what they can to stay afloat while franchise cornerstone Dirk Nowitzki continues to recover from knee surgery.  Though he had originally hoped to be back on the floor by mid-December, Dirk’s rehab has gone more slowly than expected, pushing his return date back into 2013.

In the meantime, Dallas middles along.  At present, their 11-10 record stands as seventh-best in the West, though with the Nuggets, Timberwolves, Rockets, and Lakers all two games or fewer back in the win column and only a quarter of the season gone, where they stand today means next to nothing in the grand scheme of things.  Their season numbers are befitting a .500 team angling for a low-level playoff seed: according to Basketball-Reference, their offensive rating (points scored per 100 possessions) of 104.6 stands at fourteenth in the league, while their defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) of 105.1 stands at seventeenth.

Offensively, the team has relied on emergent scoring sensation O.J. Mayo to carry the day, perhaps to a fault.  Through this morning, Mayo is the league’s eighth most prolific scorer, averaging 20.8 points per game with an astounding, league-leading .530 three-point field goal percentage.

While these numbers are terrific – especially for a career sixth man getting his first taste of life as the number one option – they seem to represent plans A, B, and C for the Mavericks, who have lived and died with Mayo’s production.  Dallas is 8-3 when O.J. scores 20 points or more, compared to 3-7 when he scores less.  They are 10-3 when he hits better than 45 percent of his field goals, and 1-8 when he doesn’t.  Mayo’s scoring numbers in Dallas’ 11 wins: 25.7 points, 54.7 FG%, 61.4 3FG%.  His numbers in their 10 losses: 16.0 points, 40.7 FG%, 40.0 3FG%.

Plans D, E, and F revolve around accidental militia man Chris Kaman (14.3 PPG, .539 FG%), former dunk contest winner Vince Carter (12.7 PPG, .416 FG%, .398 3FG%), and undersized feisty fourth-year point guard Darren Collison (12.5 PPG, .5.7 APG, 448 FG%, .893 FT%).  Does it seem weird to anybody else that the Mavericks third- and fourth-leading scorers come off the bench?

This ragtag posse will face down a Celtics team coming off one resounding victory and three full days of rest.  The C’s last played on Saturday, when they took the second of a back-to-back set from the Philadelphia 76ers, 92-79.  The night before, Boston had suffered a 95-94 overtime loss that felt more like a careless slip than a legitimate beat.  The Celtics outshot their opponent 43 percent to 37, holding them to just 2-11 from beyond the arc, but gave back the advantage by losing the battles for turnovers (18-9) and offensive rebounds (17-7).  The Sixers attempted 99 field goals over the game’s 53 minutes, 18 more than the C’s, using sheer volume to overcome their low-percentage play.

On Saturday, the remedy was clear: gain ground on second chances and the rest will work itself out.  By cutting into the Sixers’ advantages in turnovers (11-8) and offensive rebounds (12-7), the Celtics reduced their field goal attempt edge to a much more manageable 79-75.  The Celtics once again outshot their opponent, this time by a huge margin (53 percent to 39), much more than was needed to secure the victory.

It seemed the one guy who didn’t get in on the fun was Jason Terry, who scored just 13 points off 4-21 from the field (3-12 from three) over the course of the two games.  He was arguably the worst player on the floor Friday night, making only one of his 12 shot attempts en route to a Game Score of -3.2, his lowest this season.  Will an engagement with his former mates from Dallas inspire a return to form?  Not likely, according to the man himself.

Saturday’s victory prompted some heartening comments from Doc Rivers, who essentially said that, though it hasn’t shown up in the record yet, the Celtics’ defense has been making its way back toward the top-flight level that folks have been used to seeing these past few years.  This prompted a thorough review of said improvement from Celtics Hub’s Michael Pina, a must-read for Celtics fans.  A key excerpt:

In the last 10 games (beginning with the blowout loss to Detroit) they’ve allowed the eighth fewest points per possession in the league. In the last eight games (beginning with the victory over Oklahoma City) they’ve lept to fourth, giving up a measly 95.9 points per 100 possessions. In their last five games (of which they played Portland and Milwaukee without Rajon Rondo, Minnesota, and Philadelphia twice) they’ve allowed 92.2 points per 100 possessions, which is best in the league over that span.

Today, Boston’s 103.3 points allowed per 100 possessions ranks ninth-best in the league.

Tonight, the Celtics take on a single-threat offensive attack with their legs rested and their defense in ascendance.  Those sound like Gino circumstances to us.  YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-HAW!!!

Screengrabbing season kicked off on opening night with the instantly infamous Snub Heard ‘Round the World.  Kevin Garnett’s hilarious rebuff of Ray Allen’s petition for skin-to-skin contact (copyright Tas Melas) had hoops “commentators” and “analysts” from coast to coast falling all over themselves in a maniacal scramble to see who could wave the banners of good sportsmanship and common decency most gymnastically.

In our write-up on “the incident,” we said that Garnett received his former teammate with a degree of enthusiasm normally reserved for street folks soliciting smokes and coins from the suit and tie crowd.  This called to mind a notable bit of dialogue from the John Huston classic The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which obscured from us the chance to do some diehards-only quoting from the Tim Burton classic Batman.

We have since remedied the situation.

November 7, 2012
Game 4: Boston Celtics (2-2) vs. Washington Wizards (0-3)

After an 0-2 start, the Celtics got themselves into the win column with a ho-hum 89-86 victory over the truly awful Washington Wizards who are, at the time of writing, dead last in the league in offensive rating (95.2), effective field goal percentage (.438), average margin of victory (-6.55 points), and winning percentage (.000).

The teams dispensed with the rematch tout de suite, running it back on Causeway Street four nights later.  The Celtics came away with a 100-94 overtime victory, running their streak of seasons opening with back-to-back losses being reset to zero by back-to-back wins over the Wiz to two.

At the head of the effort was Kevin Garnett, who led all participants with 20 points and 13 rebounds.  While the statistical contributions certainly helped, it was the deployment of Garnett’s singular brand of psychological warfare that set the tenor of the game and quite likely pushed the Celtics over the top.  Over the course of 35 schizoid, raving minutes, Garnett barked, snarled, screamed, stalked, and generally bullied the Wizards, playing both ticket-taker and ringmaster in his own personal Carnival of Horrors.  Attractions included:

Displays such as these have made Garnett into one of the most divisive players in the game, adored by those who play for and support his teams, despised by most everyone else.  Detractors look at Garnett and see a “punk,” a “punk and a coward,” a “poor sport,” a “dirty player,” a  “blistery” – yes, “blistery” – “asshole.”  His proponents see a “warrior,” a “lion,” a “beloved teammate,” a “respected leader.”

For what it’s worth, we at the Kuts see all the world’s malice and cruelty roiling in a cauldron of godless terror and unfathomable despair.

What gets undersold by both camps, though, is the role that Garnett’s histrionics play within the framework of the larger team game.  His tendency to go after players he perceives as weak or inferior (young guys, little guys, foreign guys, guys who stink) rather than the big stars and heavy hitters is borne out of practicality and a firm grasp of long-play gamesmanship.  Essentially, you intimidate those you can break because they’re the ones who’ll start making mistakes as a result.

Consider the Wizards game.  While Garnett had brewed up enough frothing insanity to lap the table twice, he held back his largest doses for third-year forward Kevin Seraphin.  From the second quarter on, it appeared that Garnett was making a point to mess with the Guianan big man, pushing, poking, and prodding as much as possible within the boundaries of the rules.  Seraphin had tallied 19 points and 7 boards in the previous game, repeatedly drilling the Celtics’ interior on his way to an 8-9 shooting night.  Knocking him off the beam would go a good bit of the way toward a Boston victory.

With less than three minutes of regulation to play and the score tied at 80, Seraphin began to crack.  Up to this point, he had been having a pretty decent game: 16 points off 8-17 with 7 rebounds and 3 assists.  From the 2:37 mark to the end of the fourth quarter, though, he turned the ball over three times – a bad pass forced and stolen by Garnett, an offensive foul taken by Garnett, and a strip by Paul Pierce facilitated by some very aggressive defense from Garnett – and attempted zero shots.  In the overtime period, he was a veritable non-factor, going 0-2 with one rebound as his team was outscored 12-6 to close out the game.

Due to the groundwork he had begun to lay a full half of play earlier, Garnett was able to fluster his under-experienced opponent into a series of screw-ups and bad decisions at the game’s most critical juncture.  As he so often does, Tommy Heinsohn put it weirdest and best: “They’re just getting Seraphin to think in English instead of French, and he doesn’t know how to think his way out of a double team.”

November 9, 2012
Game 5: Boston Celtics (2-3) vs. Philadelphia 76ers (3-2)

With 3:13 left in the first quarter, Rajon Rondo inbounded from under the hoop to Brandon Bass on the wing.  Fronted by Spencer Hawes, Bass immediately went into a strong, lefty dribble-drive, blowing by his man in two long strides.  Bass hit the semicircle and went up hard to the rim, the ball held high over his head with both hands.  On the way up, he was clipped on the forearm by helping big Lavoy Allen, who gave the ball a momentary stay from the cylinder.  Bass went to the line and smoothly sank his two free throws.

Between FTs, Tommy Heinsohn explained a subtle new wrinkle in Bass’ game with an A+ extended simile, which we were more than happy to transcribe and provide a visual representation of.

Add this to his game: his ability to do what he just did there.  Last year, when he would drive, he would consistently show the ball to the defender and the defender had a good chance of blocking it because it was like putting an apple pie on the windowsill as a very hungry man was walking by.

November 14, 2012
Game 8: Boston Celtics (5-3) vs. Utah Jazz (4-5)

Following their 106-100 home loss to the Sixers, the Celtics got on a bit of a roll, taking their next three from the Bucks (96-92), the Bulls (101-95), and the Jazz (98-93).  The Jazz game was particularly fertile in terms of screengrabbing.  The Kuts came out firing early, snapping up this first-quarter close-up of Gordon Hayward’s dirt chops, which suggest a passive insistence on the part of Utah’s third-year guard to be known as “Gord” or “Gordie” Hayward from here on out.

Jeff Green’s early-season inconsistency has been remarked upon quite a bit.  While he’s sprinkled a handful of decent games into the mix, his per-36 numbers are below his career averages across the board, except for the turnovers, which are up.  The guy did sit out all of last year to recover from a major cardiac procedure, so we’re sure we can cut him some slack while he builds his game back up.

He took a big step forward in that department against Utah, turning in 16 points off 5-9 from the floor and 6-7 from the line in 27 minutes of action.  Amongst the 16 were a pair gotten off a rafter-quaking throw-down over former Celtic Al Jefferson, the sort of thing you might show a time-travelling Donald Dinnie if he were to ask you what a “posterization” was.

Green seems like a nice guy.  Like most nice guys, he also seems like a bit of a square.  This is evidenced by his puzzling decision to play basketball in black Steve Madden wingtips with white socks crumpling down to the ankles like he lost his garters.  Come on, Jeff; everybody knows that if you’re going to rock the high socks, you’ve got to bring ‘em all the way up to the knee.  Right, Big Dog?

Paul Pierce led all players with 23 points, getting 15 of them in a red-hot third quarter which saw the Celtics’ captain knock down three consecutive triples over a span of two-plus minutes.  The third one put the C’s up 60-58, and inspired rookie forward Jared Sullinger to unload a wicked windmilling celebration from the sideline.

November 15, 2012
Game 9: Boston Celtics (5-4) at Brooklyn Nets (5-2)

The next night, the Celtics hopped the Fung Wah Bus to NYC for their nationally-televised matchup with the Brooklyn Nets.  Clearly feeling stiff and fatigued from the ride, they dropped the game 102-97, despite actually outplaying their opponent in a number of different ways.  They shot the ball better from the field (.467 to .424), from the line (.800 to .786), and from downtown (.538 to .364).  They pounded the ball on the inside (46 points in the paint to 36) and ripped the net in transition (19 fast break points to 5).

Unfortunately, they also allowed a season-high 18 offensive rebounds, which resulted in an 85-75 field goal attempt advantage for the bad guys.  Basically, the Celtics did offense better, but the Nets did it more often.

While it wasn’t necessarily emblematic of how the game went, Keith Bogans provided what will assuredly be the most lasting image from the evening.  Towards the end of the second quarter, he attempted to twist Leandro Barbosa’s head off his body like he was opening a Fanta.

Several minutes prior to that, Jason Terry took a valiant swipe at Jared Sullinger’s sideline celebration crown, but went down in a third-round TKO.  After a bucket from KG brought the Celtics to within four, Terry rose from his seat, lifted his knee, and extended his right arm toward the Nets’ end of the floor in what looked like an interpretation of the famous Lady Justice statue.

It looks as though Terry meant to do… something…but whatever it was, it came out sideways and half-cocked at the moment of truth.  On the plus side, he may have accidentally stumbled across a thinking man’s expression of satisfaction for the next time an opponent turns the ball over or bricks a shot after a bogus call goes against the Celtics, a sort of non-verbal “ball don’t lie.”

November 17, 2012
Game 10: Boston Celtics (6-4) vs. Toronto Raptors (2-7)

The Celtics put their first wire-to-wire walloping in the books nearly three full weeks after the season began, dropping the Raptors 107-89 in a Saturday matinee at the Garden.  They had played four home games prior to this one, losing two and winning the others by a total margin of 11 points.  That’s not Gino time.  Knocking down 57 percent of your shots while your voodoo priest point guard drops 20 dimes and your undersized rookie “big” man racks up his first career double-double?  That’s Gino time.

November 21, 2012
Game 12: Boston Celtics (6-6) vs. San Antonio Spurs (9-3)

Though they were only down by two at the time, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo were stricken by a profound sadness as they watched their team grapple valiantly with the mighty Spurs.  It was as though they could see the game slipping away long before it happened, like a pair of expatriated Slovaks whose exhilaration at the prospect of engaging with the American Dream has been snuffed out by the absolute fact of the hard road growing only harder as it twists into the foggy alienscape ahead.

November 25, 2012
Game 14: Boston Celtics (8-6) at Orlando Magic (5-8)

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: at 15 seasons and counting, Paul Pierce still has the best smile in the business.