BOSTON — The Chicago Bulls are becoming accustomed to triage.
It happens so quickly. A game or a half or a quarter will be plodding along in routine fashion — and then, the bleeding begins. The Bulls led 9-6 a couple of minutes into Friday’s game at TD Garden. And then, in a span of 4 minutes, 31 seconds, the Boston Celtics ripped off a 21-7 run.
The game, of course, was not over at that point. An 11-point lead is nothing in the NBA. But the damage was already halfway done. By the end of the first quarter, the Bulls had given up 44 points to a Celtics offense that showed no signs of slowing. The only questions left were focused on loss mitigation — how could the Bulls stop the bleeding?
The Celtics didn’t need much. They crowded the Bulls to force turnovers and shoveled the ball into the basket in the immediate aftermath of those errors. They knocked down a trio of 3-pointers but generated the majority of their points at the rim. And while starters such as Jayson Tatum offered the pedestrian brilliance of longtime stars in this league, the Celtics thrived just as consistently while leaning on bench rotations to hand the Bulls a convincing 125-111 loss.
“We’re the Chicago Bulls, and I feel like it’s unacceptable to be losing like we are and laying down that early in the game,” rookie Caleb Wilson said.
This is a growing concern. The Bulls arrived in Boston — their second game there in five nights after a 134-99 loss Monday — with the second-worst defensive rating (121.7) in the league. Their inability to defend the point of attack pairs nauseatingly with their struggles to protect the ball. A team that allows 58 points in the paint and 21 off turnovers simply rarely is going to win a game, even if its opponent shoots only 31.3% from behind the arc.
Coach Tiago Splitter seemed to grasp the reality of the situation quickly. He threw rookies such as Tobe Awaka and end-of-bench players such as Jordan Hawkins into the game in the second quarter. This early adjustment gave a greater runway for the Bulls to focus on development — and that paid off. Noa Essengue earned another lengthier stint to work on his defensive game. The Bulls hustled for 25 second-chance points off 20 offensive rebounds.
Wilson particularly thrived in this environment. He went 6-for-11 from 3-point range, finishing with a team-high 23 points, and showed flashes of defensive acumen, blocking Tatum at the rim in the fourth quarter. Wilson felt a noticeable comfort in defending Tatum after his first matchup with the star in Monday night’s blowout.
“Usually when it’s an iso on me, I hold my own ground,” Wilson said. “I just have to work on being more attentive off the ball so people can’t get actions off ball. But I feel like once I get that, I’ll be one of the best defenders in the NBA. I block shots, I rebound, I push in transition. It’s really hard to score on me. I know that based on how they play when I’m on the court.”
But the loss mostly highlighted the greatest weaknesses for a Bulls team facing more questions than answers on the defensive end. And any minor victories that might have emerged were meaningless in the face of the additional loss Friday’s blowout provided — a substantial blow in the NBA Cup standings. The Bulls now face a steep deficit in the tournament after their first game of the group stage.
The Bulls compete in East Group C, which includes the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards. The Bulls would need to finish as one of the top two teams to advance to the knockout stage, a feat they have not achieved since the tournament was introduced in 2023.
They will play the next two NBA Cup games at home — against the Atlanta Hawks on Nov. 13 and Washington Wizards on Nov. 20 — before traveling to Charlotte, N.C., for their final group-stage game against the Hornets on Nov. 25. One more loss likely would eliminate them from advancement, especially after the Celtics loss left them with a minus-14 point differential, which accounts for one of the tiebreakers in the group stage.
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The value of the NBA Cup varies from team to team. A rebuilding team such as the Bulls didn’t stand much of a chance in a stacked Eastern Conference group, especially with young players still acclimating to the pace of the league. Splitter mostly shrugged off the potential Cup implications during pregame availability.
The Celtics did not keep their starters on the court until the final buzzer, unlike in past years when they attempted to boost their point differential through the end of the game. As a result, a 32-point lead shrank to 14 points by the final whistle.