Celtics set franchise record in 133-77 win over Bulls
By Ty Anderson, 985TheSportsHub.com
In case the score alone didn’t tell you, the Boston Celtics made history on Saturday night in their 133-77 victory over the Chicago Bulls. Which, when you’re the most historic and accomplished franchise in the sport’s history, is saying something.
Squared up against a straight-up hopeless Bulls squad, the Celtics not only dropped a season-high 133, but they held Chicago to an opponent-low 77 points. Split the difference and you have the greatest margin of victory in C’s franchise history.
There no surprises here, either, as the Celtics opened the game up on a 17-0 run and never looked back.
“I thought our guys were really locked in,” Celtics head coach Brad Stevens said after the victory, his team’s fifth in a row. “We played really hard all the way through and probably played them on the right night coming off of a long, hard win yesterday, where they clearly had to expend a lot of energy. And it’s just one of those nights that we needed to come out and play that way. I thought our guys stayed consistent through all 48 [minutes].”
But in an anything-but-close meeting, the Green’s offensive effort was not led by a Kyrie Irving or Jayson Tatum, but rather Daniel Theis, who has given the start at center and contributed in a big way, with 22 points and 10 rebounds.
“I was real excited,” Theis said of his opportunity. “I’m just trying to help the team however I can.”
Daniel Theis with the slam (@AAANe_MAnews) #AAANortheast pic.twitter.com/veAlc48GiQ
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) December 9, 2018
“On the defensive end, I just try to bring energy, especially when we know we’re short-handed on bigs,” Theis noted. “I knew, and also [Guerschon Yabusele] knew, we were going to get some playing time and just try to play our way.”
In what was a dominant wire-to-wire effort for the Celtics, who at one point led by as much as 58 points, Stevens got almost everybody involved, as 10 of his 11 players hit double-digits in minutes by the night’s end.
“One of the things we’ve been good with is when other guys have to step up the last couple of years, they always do,” said Stevens. “Whether it’s Semi [Ojeleye] or [Daniel Theis] or anybody else on the bench, they’re ready.”
Also: Holy smokes are the Chicago Bulls terrible. Michael Jordan hasn’t even died yet and he’s already rolling over in his grave, Scottie Pippen prefers to be known as ‘that tall dude at the Kanye-Kim wedding’ and not an ex-Bull, and Dennis Rodman has officially defected to North Korea. This team is an embarrassment across the board.
And sure, the absurd organizational failures are probably (read as: most definitely) by design, but when your starters combine for a mere 27 points and your leading scorer is somebody named Shaquille Harrison (21 points and less Twitter followers than half our staff), you know you have problems. This is like Brooklyn Nets bad. This is unwatchable.
And on Saturday night, it was historic.
The Celtics will return to Boston for a head-to-head with Anthony Davis and the Pelicans on Monday night.
