The Celtics fell apart late and dropped a rare loss of composure to the Bulls in their return to the court on Thursday, falling 117-108.
Here are the takeaways.
1. Joe Mazzulla, Jaylen Brown, and Jayson Tatum picked up technicals in rapid succession
With 5:12 remaining and the Celtics trailing by three, Payton Pritchard and Bulls guard Ayo Dosunmu got tangled up going for a jump ball, and Jaylen Brown tried to get his hand into the play as well.
The jump appeared as though it should have been between Dosunmu and Pritchard, and official Justin Van Duyne whistled it as such.
The Celtics protested that Brown should be taking the jump ball, and Joe Mazzulla walked out onto the floor to add his voice to the mix. That proved to be a bridge too far for Van Duyne, who whistled Mazzulla for a quick technical.
A livid Mazzulla had to be restrained by assistant coaches Sam Cassell and Tony Dobbins, and after the Bulls made a technical free throw, Brown continued to chirp at Van Duyne, who whistled another technical on the Celtics star.
Less than two minutes later, Jayson Tatum was whistled for a foul defending on the perimeter. Upset by the call, Tatum waved his hand at Tony Brothers and Brothers obligingly gave Tatum a technical as well.
The sequence essentially took the Celtics out of the game. Zach LaVine, who had a huge 36-point performance, made both of the initial technical free throws, and after the Celtics failed to secure the tap with Pritchard up against Dosunmu, LaVine buried a deep 3-pointer that pushed the lead to eight. The Celtics never really challenged again, and after the game, Mazzulla had to be pulled off the floor again by Cassell and Dobbins. Mazzulla's message to Van Duyne didn't exactly require expert lip reading, and he appeared to be beckoning Van Duyne over to fight him (Van Duyne, probably wisely, did not).
2. The Celtics' defense struggled.
The Bulls aren't a bad offensive team (13th entering Thursday's game), but they overperformed considerably against the Celtics, especially during a nasty stretch at the start of the fourth quarter during which the Celtics' defense went to pieces.
The Bulls started the quarter on a 17-4 run, spurred by the kind of offense on which the Celtics pride themselves - 3-pointers and layups. Dosunmu in particular ran right around Celtics defenders, driving into the paint for easy layups and dishing out to corner 3-pointers. Dosumnu scored nine of his 17 points during a five-minute stretch in which the Bulls turned a four-point Celtics lead into a nine-point Bulls lead.
The Celtics never really recovered, which was something of an extension of one of Mazzulla's larger points: Sometimes defense flows from offense. The Celtics never really got a rhythm offensively, and their defense suffered tremendously as a result.
The Bulls scored 117 points, which isn't an outrageous number, but the Celtics' defense has slipped a bit this year - 109.7 in rating entering Thursday's game. That's more than enough to win on most nights (and the eye test suggests that they can be much better when they hit the gas as hard as they can), but on nights when the offense can't pick up the slack, the whole machine starts to tremble.
3. This is what happens when the 3-pointers don't fall.
On a very related note, the Celtics shot 14-for-56 from behind the arc - just 25 percent.
No single player was particularly good (Payton Pritchard shot 4-for-10, Jayson Tatum shot 4-for-11), and no single player was outlier bad (Jaylen Brown was 1-for-8, Jrue Holiday was 0-for-4).
Thursday's game was just the kind of game that a high-volume 3-point shooting team has from time to time during the year, and it looked particularly pronounced coming from a team as high-volume as the Celtics.
The technicals at the end may have stymied any chance of a Celtics comeback, which clearly matters, but the missed 3-pointers and the defensive breakdowns dug the Celtics into the hole that frustrated them in the first place.
4. Jaylen Brown responded to criticism.
Brown may have struggled a bit offensively (19 points, three turnovers), but he did respond to one criticism from his good friend and teammate: Kirstaps Porzingis can no longer claim that Brown doesn't take end-of-quarter heaves.
5. Jaden Springer got rotation playing time.
Springer, a defensive-minded guard who showed a lot of promise in Philadelphia, has largely been benched for the Celtics, but he played 13 minutes on Thursday with stints in both the first and fourth quarters. Springer shot 0-for-2 from the field, but he did grab four rebounds.
6. Another shot at Chicago.
The Celtics have a chance to bounce back against the team that frustrated them when they travel to Chicago on Saturday. After that, the Celtics have an interesting week with games against the Magic and Pacers on Monday and Friday, and a home game in between against the 76ers on Christmas Day.