The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: 10 Takeaways from Boston Celtics-Chicago Bulls

Note: Because it’s a holiday week, and your author is doing some traveling today, these Takeaways are being done in the style of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

1. The Good: The nine-game win streak was snapped, but it happened! There should be no doom and gloom about where the Boston Celtics are heading this season based off this one result. Does the team have issues? Sure, they have a few. But mostly, this was an off night against a desperate team that badly needed a win.

The Celtics are fine. Even the things we’ll call out here are aberrations (for the most part) or they are things that should (or, at least, could) be fixed eventually.

2. The Good: Malcolm Brogdon was excellent. He scored 23 points in 25 minutes off Boston’s bench. Brogdon also added six assists and was one of the few Celtics to put together a decent defensive effort in this one.

A funny aside…Brogdon has a unique shooting motion. In a game where he took several spot-up threes, it really stood out. Brogdon starts his shot relatively low, and it looks like the effort to get it up to the rim is all he can manage. At times, it looks like Brogdon is shooting a medicine ball while playing through a torn rotator cuff:

But he’s wildly effective, so it doesn’t matter in the slightest. Just a funny observation.

3. The Good: Despite a somewhat high turnover night (more on that next), the Celtics continued to move the ball quite well. They tallied 28 assists on 38 baskets. Marcus Smart returned and led the way with eight assists, Jayson Tatum continued his playmaking with seven helpers and, as mentioned above, Malcolm Brogdon had six dimes off the bench.

More than anything else, the willingness to share the ball was the most encouraging part of this loss for Boston. No one went into extreme hero ball mode, and that’s a welcomed departure from past losses.

4. The Bad: Turnovers were a thing. 15 turnovers are above Boston’s average, but not by an incredible amount. Instead, the bad part was when the turnovers seemed to happen.

Four different times in the second half, when the Celtics made a run at the Bulls, and it seemed like they were snatching momentum away, they’d cough it up.

But the stars were guilty earlier in the game too. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are carrying a heavy playmaking burden, but such is the life of a star player. That will come with some turnovers, as they are a part of being a high-usage player. The ones that are killers are the…