The Celtics pulled off their seventh straight win on Thursday night against the Bulls but it did not come easily before halftime for Boston. The visitors squandered a 15-point lead in the second quarter as Chicago erupted for 39 points in the period on 70 percent shooting from the field. However, that offensive explosion was short-lived as the Celtics outscored the Bulls 70-50 in the second half to cruise to the 129-112 victory.
The lopsided outcome came in large part due to a dominant 37-21 third quarter for Boston where the team locked down against the Bulls’ firepower. What exactly led to the shift? Derrick White credited coach Joe Mazzulla with a key defensive adjustment to disrupt their flow.
“Early, they were doing a good job of trying to get Vooch the ball in the seam,” White told reporters in Chicago. “We changed the coverage a little bit and tried to make it more difficult. More active hands, I think Jrue got his hand on it a couple times for that little seam pass. You see what they’re trying to do, what they like to do and try to make an adjustment to make it a little more difficult. It was Joe.”
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Mazzulla went into greater depth about how he watched his team use the adjustment to make an impact.
“I thought we changed our pick-and-roll coverage a little bit to start the third which I thought allowed us to be a little more physical at the point of attack,” Mazzulla explained. “Then I thought our shift activity was a little more active in that third quarter. I thought we had a great first quarter, great third, great most of the fourth and that second quarter just kind of came down to defensive execution and I thought some lulls on the offensive end. We had some empty possessions, a couple turnovers, a couple rushed shots. That team’s dangerous. When you have empty possessions and give them transition, they’re a dangerous team.”
Outside of Alex Caruso, the Bulls did not have the defensive horses to slow down Boston’s top-ranked offense so the game shifted quickly with Mazzulla’s adjustment. Nikola Vucevic was limited to just two second quarter points and none of the Bulls’ top offensive weapons got a flow going. Meanwhile, eight different Celtics scored eight points or more in a balanced scoring effort to help Boston cruise to their seventh straight road win.
“I think we just regrouped,” Jayson Tatum said. “We had a great first quarter, and we had like 23 points. They had 39 points in that second quarter. Just came out there. Obviously talk about it at halftime, things that we needed to do. We just implemented it in the third quarter. We just kept going.”
Mazzulla and the Celtics will look to keep the momentum going for their eighth straight win on Saturday night in a matchup against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
