NBA teams frequently try to mimic the style of the most recent champions. When the Warriors were at the height of their run several years ago, other teams began looking to assemble their own death lineups. Switching became the go-to defensive style.
The same sort of mimickry followed after the Celtics won the title last season with elite three-point shooting and a five-out offense. In fact, the Bulls’ emphasis this season on playing faster and putting up more threes is in part an attempt to emulate the Celtics’ three-point blitzing prowess.
They had some success keeping up with the defending champs Friday night, hanging in the game until the 8:45 mark of the fourth quarter, when Celtics forward Jaylen Brown rejected a screen at the top of the key, drove toward the lane with his left hand and exploded to the rim to posterize Bulls center Jalen Smith and force coach Billy Donovan to call timeout. After that contact dunk, the Celtics led by three and didn’t relent in a 138-129 win at the United Center.
For three quarters, the Bulls (8-13) were beating the Celtics (16-3) at their own game — controlling the pace, making their threes and limiting their turnovers.
“I think we played them well,” said guard Zach LaVine, who finished with 29 points. “We made some mistakes. They have some really good players on their team. I think [there were] a couple of runs where they hit some threes [and] we might have had some turnovers or missed shots, but I think we played really good — at least towards our identity.”
But a switch flipped in the fourth quarter. Miscommunication led to some wide-open shots for Celtics guard Payton Pritchard, who torched the Bulls for 19 points in the quarter and finished with 29. He also had four offensive rebounds.
“You look down the stat sheet and you look at the overall rebounding, and it’s not like we got pounded on the glass,” Donovan said. “I just thought there were really timely [rebounds] on missed shots, free throws that we’ve got to come down with, where the game is a possession or two. That’s big.
“[There were] a couple of fouls that we probably need to be a little bit more disciplined on and a couple switches, and we just don’t have that margin for error.”
Forward Jayson Tatum finished with a game-high 35 points for the Celtics.
Against most teams, the Bulls’ 129 points would be enough to win.
“At this level, it’s not a huge gap between the best teams and the middle team, bottom teams,” said center Nikola Vucevic, who led the Bulls with 32 points — including four consecutive threes in a stretch in the second quarter — and 11 rebounds. “We know we can compete against those teams. Can we do it consistently? Can we do it every night?”
LaVine brought up a stretch in the fourth quarter in which he missed a transition three that turned into two points for the Celtics. Guard Ayo Dosunmu then missed a shot on the next possession that turned into a three for the Celtics.
A three-point Celtics lead grew to eight with two minutes left.
“Little stuff like that . .. that’s the breaking point in the game,” LaVine said.