Bad Irish Luck: Bulls Lose to Celtics

It seems the Bulls have hit their worst stretch of the season earlier than we could have imagined.  The Boston Celtics made sure of that Wednesday with a 105-100 victory.  Make that three straight Bulls defeats, completed on the front end of a nationally televised back-to-back.

These teams were locked in battle to the point where they were tied after three quarters.  But the Celtics scored 10 straight points and the Bulls could never recover.  Sure, they tried, but the Celtics matched them whenever they tried to get a run going.

Of the 10 Celtics who appeared the game, eight of them scored.  All of them scored in double figures.  Seriously.  Isaiah Thomas led with 20 points, but the Celtics' scoring sheet more resembled what you'd find in the All-Star Game.  It's tough to comprehend how that could have happened, but did.

Jimmy Butler scored a season-high 36 points and Pau Gasol had his latest double-double of 16 points and 15 rebounds.  Those were the two most normal things we saw from the Bulls all night.  Derrick Rose's 12 points came on a 5-of-11 shooting night, which we should refuse to accept as normal, but might have to pretty soon.  Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic scored 11 and 10 off the bench respectively.

I really wish we didn't have to say the Bulls were struggling to figure out who they were, but that might be the case exactly.  Are they a good team just going through a bad stretch?  Or are they a mediocre team who happened to get off to a good start?  Even the best psychologists in Chicago would have trouble figuring that one out.

Maybe the obvious is coming to pass.  While the rest of the league tried to improve itself in the offseason, the Bulls gambled by bringing virtually the same group back and banked on greater success thanks to a new coach and new system.  This isn't like the dynasty years, during which they could afford to have almost everybody back year in and year out.  There's not nearly as much talent and if they weren't a championship-caliber club to begin with, they're in even worse shape than we thought.

The Bulls will return home Thursday for a TNT game against the Los Angeles Clippers.  While that club is certainly older, they also have Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and many other smart and athletic players who on paper, would eat many of these Bulls alive at the moment.  Then again, the Bulls always seem to show up against teams with the most talent.  A pity they can't seem to do that game in and game out.