Does Not Work, But Could Be Fun To Fix! Celtics/Bulls 11.1.21

Yikes.

That's not exactly what I had in mind when I picked a game to restart this blog with. Before we talk about the game itself because I actually had a chance to watch it, I am going to go on the record as being pro-Marcus Smart.

What he said about Jayson and Jaylen needing to step up as playmakers and learn how to pass the ball was spot on, unfortunately. And that's coming from arguably the biggest Jayson and Jaylen guy in the state of Vermont.

But before I lay a bit of proverbial waste to the Celtics, though, I do have to give the Chicago Bulls the credit they deserve. They're a legit 6-1, and when we went way way up in the third quarter, they knew the pressures to apply on both ends of the floor. Lonzo looks great, I miss him (more on THAT later).

Zach Lavine is a star, and the supplementary pieces they've put around those two and Vuc make me curious about what they'll look like in like March. Oh yeah, and Demar Derozan had 37 points last night. I guess if Demar is in the Eastern Conference, the Celtics need to be on high alert at all times. Also Ayo Dosunmu? Will be a good player in the NBA for a long time.

Okay so hard pivot, Captain Inefficiency showed his head loud and proud last night. Tatum couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat, and some of those midrange forces he was putting up were making me pull my hair out. He also was putting in a laughable amount of effort on defense, and I did make myself sit through the whole game, even the fourth quarter, so I saw it all.

So far this season, I do believe Jaylen has superseded his running mate in player-to-player comparison talk. Last night was fairly acceptable, but again, the offense settles for so much garbage that I couldn't even enjoy a decent Jaylen game. Dennis and Richardson also were guilty of these charges.

But the real problem comes in the perceived apathy this early in the season, and Marcus was completely right in his takes about "other teams preparing for our best players" , and Jaylen and Jayson needing to learn to pass the ball.

Ime saying that we got "too cute" in the third quarter, which directly led to the absolute disaster that was the 39-11 fourth, was right on as well. The pace slowed way down, any shreds of ball movement disappeared, and we refused to guard anyone.

I'm not going to go on and on and make this any less fun to read than it might be anyway. We need to move on and think about the Magic and not allow ourselves to lose to the Magic because the Magic are not good. Moving on.