Why they lost: Not because of the refs

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

You want to know why the Celtics lost this game?

Lucky shots? Those certainly helped, but that was only two plays.

Bad refs? I agree that the refs were bad, but the only time I feel comfortable pinning a loss on bad officiating is when the team plays well virtually the whole game and then gets shafted at the very end. That's not what happened tonight.

Tonight, the Celtics shot themselves in the foot, and it started in the first quarter.

Chicago had 8 turnovers in the first quarter—EIGHT—but the Celtics got only a measly 4 points off those turnovers:

Barbosa gets a steal, and Pierce misses a jumper
Pierce gets a steal, Rondo misses a jumper
Bass gets a steal, then commits a traveling violation
Sully gets a steal, Rondo gets a dunk
Lee gets a steal, Pierce misses a layup
Deng throws the ball away, then Rondo throws it right back
Boozer travels, then Rondo misses a jump shot
Lee gets a steal, Rondo hits a jumper

There was also a Barbosa missed layup, and missed open jumpers by Bass (twice) and Lee (thrice).

Second quarter featured three more Chicago turnovers, but the Cs got only 2 points out of them:

Noah throws it away, Garnett commits offensive foul
Deng throws it away, Garnett missed jumper
Bass gets the steal, Rondo makes the layup

Also, Pierce misses wide-open three pointers on consecutive possessions.

That's 11 first-half turnovers for Chicago resulting in only 6 Boston points, and a host of missed open looks, which, if close to half are made, would've given Boston another 8-10 points.

Also: Pierce shot 5 for 17, KG 5 for 16 overall (6 of 10 FTs). KG doesn't take 16 shots when he's on, so I don't know why he shot so many times tonight when he was clearly off. Pierce has been in a funk for several games now, and some of his shots were quite flat.

Also would've been nice if Green had attempted more than 4 shots.

Some people like to say that games are won or lost in crunch time. I say that wins and losses can be traced back to what happened throughout the course of a game. Missed opportunities.

P.S.: Loved how Rondo kept taking it to the hoop in the first half, and congratulations to Sully for another awesome effort on the boards (15, 5 offensive).

[lightspeed5]

we lost because of the refs. it was a home game. There is no such thing as home field advantage for the celtics. might as well go for the 8th seed since anything higher is useless.

[xmuscularghandix]

Refs had a bunch of phantom calls and clearly gave them the game with the jump ball to Pierce... but The celtics were up with 12 seconds left in regulation, then they were up with like 14 left on OT... gave up buckets both time. Refs tried to give it to Bulls but in the end the Celtics still should have won.

By the way Jeff Green was useless again. 1-4 and literally didn't pick up a single statistic outside of those 4 attempts, no assists, rebounds, steals, hell he didn't even commit a foul or a turnover. Make it known that you were in the game... dude you did absolutely nothing.

[j804]

Refs had a bunch of phantom calls and clearly gave them the game with the jump ball to Pierce... but The celtics were up with 12 seconds left in regulation, then they were up with like 14 left on OT... gave up buckets both time. Refs tried to give it to Bulls but in the end the Celtics still should have won.

By the way Jeff Green was useless again. 1-4 and literally didn't pick up a single statistic outside of those 4 attempts, no assists, rebounds, steals, hell he didn't even commit a foul or a turnover. Make it known that you were in the game... dude you did absolutely nothing.

Jeff played some decent defense on Deng for a stretch but he was for the most part a non factor. Him and Bass were pretty frustrating to watch, same for Pierce and KG.

[Celtics4ever]

I thought "Barnabas Collins" Heinrich clearly pushed Rondo on the 6th foul into the opposing man.

[mctyson]

I thought they lost because Pierce played a particularly horrible game, highlighted by him getting trapped and giving up a jump ball with 9 secs left, when we had 1 timeout left.

[cltc5]

Yea, Im not puting this on the refs, becasue we still had a chance to win.  If we win, there's probably kess complaint about the refs.  Its' just a natural reaction I supposes.  Even thought they were pretty horrendous, we still coulda/shoulda won.  Just one of those tough losses

[2short]

I thought they lost because Pierce played a particularly horrible game, highlighted by him getting trapped and giving up a jump ball with 9 secs left, when we had 1 timeout left.

that was bad
scal right away said I don't like that play when you put the ball in you have 2 sidelines and 2 defenders, tp for him on that one

[Roy H.]

There were lots of reasons we lost.  Terrible offense for much of the game (especially from Pierce, KG, and Green), missed free throws, and that atrocious jump ball call were some of the biggest.

[BudweiserCeltic]

There were lots of reasons we lost.  Terrible offense for much of the game (especially from Pierce, KG, and Green), missed free throws, and that atrocious jump ball call were some of the biggest.

Don't see the need to single out Green, particularly when KG, Pierce, and Rondo shooting as much as they did. Might as well mention Barbosa and Sully who also had poor shooting nights.

But the blame still has to go to KG and Pierce. Absurd amount of shots on an off night, and both did a very poor job moving the ball,  no need to involve anyone else in our offensive problems in this game.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

im sorry but it was.

We are up by 2, if that foul was called more than likely we'll be up by 4. And that's ball game.

Instead they missed the fact that Paul got hounded, arms hitting his arms and they called a jump ball. Leading to this and that.

The refs blew it for us.

[Rtpas11]

we lost because of Rondo... Remember stat #'s lie. Rondo could've scored 50 points 2nite it wouldn't have mattered. C's desperately needs a back-up point guard like Ramon Sessions. I think we should trade for him.

We also lost because Pierce had a poor shooting night. Anyhow we stink. that 6 game winning streak was a fluke. Come Feb. Danny better have a yard sale of players moving out or he'll find himself getting put out. How could we not beat a team that doesn't have their best player playing & we have all of our guys playing. I'm not buying in to this team until something drastically gets changed.

[Roy H.]

There were lots of reasons we lost.  Terrible offense for much of the game (especially from Pierce, KG, and Green), missed free throws, and that atrocious jump ball call were some of the biggest.

Don't see the need to single out Green, particularly when KG, Pierce, and Rondo shooting as much as they did. Might as well mention Barbosa and Sully who also had poor shooting nights.

Jeff Green absolutely sucked last night.  No offense (1-for-4), no movement, no energy, zero rebounds, zero assists, zero steals, zero blocks.  Offensively, he hurt, and defensively he was a non-factor.

[Lightskinsmurf]

Yea, Im not puting this on the refs, becasue we still had a chance to win.  If we win, there's probably kess complaint about the refs.  Its' just a natural reaction I supposes.  Even thought they were pretty horrendous, we still coulda/shoulda won.  Just one of those tough losses

So because we had a chance to win its not on the refs ? That has got to be the worst logic EVER. I guess the 2002 lakers kings game 6 wasn't on the refs either.

[BudweiserCeltic]

There were lots of reasons we lost.  Terrible offense for much of the game (especially from Pierce, KG, and Green), missed free throws, and that atrocious jump ball call were some of the biggest.

Don't see the need to single out Green, particularly when KG, Pierce, and Rondo shooting as much as they did. Might as well mention Barbosa and Sully who also had poor shooting nights.

Jeff Green absolutely sucked last night.  No offense (1-for-4), no movement, no energy, zero rebounds, zero assists, zero steals, zero blocks.  Offensively, he hurt, and defensively he was a non-factor.

He played defense well, so don't know what you're talking about on that regard, and I don't care about the rebounds as our team actually rebounded well, I don't concern myself about who's grabbing the rebounds as long as he had a Celtic's jersey on.

The problem was Pierce and KG, who didn't care to move the ball... the whole game they were taking ill advised shots, in traffic surrounded by 2 or 3 players, while various Celtics players were open. It was very evident to me with Terry on the floor that was getting a bit peeved at not getting any touches particularly when he was constantly open in the corner... until they finally gave it to him and he buried a 3.

That Green hurt us offensively is a very big stretch when he only took 4 shots. He didn't have a good game offensively, but I wouldn't go as far as pointing out that he hurt us in any significant manner, or find the need to single him out as the problem, because it wasn't. He was a non-factor offensively, that's as far as I think is worth pointing out, but I think the major problem was the lack of ball movement once the ball touched either KG's or Pierce's hands more than anything.

Green was +5 for the game, highest for our team, so go figure...