Celtics got a taste of their own medicine and it almost worked against them

The Boston Celtics came back from a three-day Thanksgiving break on Saturday night, squaring off with the Chicago Bulls in an NBA Cup game. Last year, the Celtics embarrassed the Bulls, running up the score late in the game by intentionally fouling Andre Drummond in an attempt to advance in the tournament.

But this season, Chicago is a different team. They lost DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso in the offseason and got Josh Giddey, Matas Buzelis, and Lonzo Ball, who has finally returned from over two years of injury recovery. They have been playing a very different style of basketball this season.

A very Celtics-esque style of basketball.

Though they weren’t quite on pace with the Celtics from beyond the arc, the Bulls were trying. They took 13 threes in the first quarter to Boston’s 16, and in the second frame, they out-shot the Celtics from deep. Chicago took 12 threes, and the Celtics only got up 11.

Not only did the Bulls take 12 threes—they made seven of them.

Chicago was raining down triples just like Boston does, and Nikola Vucevic was leading the charge. He and Torrey Craig led the way from beyond the arc in the second quarter.

That, combined with the relentless desire to get out in transition and capitalize on slow defenses, and the Bulls were beating the Celtics at their own game.

Boston was playing on the back foot for most of the first half. They almost seemed surprised that the Bulls were able to keep up with them in that way.

“I felt like one, that team’s really good, and when they get out in transition and play with pace, and they’re a team in the sense of when their role players are playing at a high level, you got to pick and choose your poison,” Joe Mazzulla said post-game via CLNS Media. “So, I didn’t think we got out to a great start. They got out in transition. We had the lead and kind of the transition, and our offensive execution got them back into it. 

“And then they were kind of clicking on all cylinders with their role players hitting threes, Vucevic hitting threes, and LaVine playing really well. Just kind of thought we chipped away at it, making the plays we needed to make. Once we got them out of transition and into the half-court, I thought we were able to defend them a little bit better.”

By the time the second half came around, Boston had adjusted their defense to slow down the Bulls, praying on the weaknesses in their offense. But because of the Celtics’ slow start trying to defend Chicago’s offense, this game was close until the bitter end.

They almost got beat by their own game, and the Bulls deserve a ton of credit for testing Boston’s limits.