BOSTON — The Chicago Bulls paid a heavy price for their failure to run out of the gates against the Boston Celtics.
Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg lamented his team’s slow start and lack of urgency and aggressiveness in their 110-101 loss to the Celtics on Friday at TD Garden. Despite trailing by 15 points at halftime, the Bulls managed to cut the Celtics’ lead to one in the fourth quarter before fading away down the stretch.
Hoiberg said after the game early focus was the difference between the Bulls winning and losing.
“We understand the urgency we have to come out with, especially on the defensive end,” he said. “You give up 34 in first quarter, we’re going to find ourselves in the same position. That’s what it’s all about. It’s such a fine line in this business of being a great team and a very average team, and we teeter on that line. But you come out with the aggressiveness that we made that run with, you’re obviously not in that position.”
Although the Celtics led from start to finish, the Bulls at one point looked like they might snatch a victory. The Bulls held the Celtics to 37.5 percent field-goal shooting in the third quarter — compared to 50 percent in the first half — and came to within a basket of taking the lead with five minutes to play in the fourth quarter.
Hoiberg would have liked to have seen his team play with high intensity thoughout the contest, instead of in spurts.
“The fire that we have in that comeback is what we have to have,” Hoiberg concluded. “We have moments where we have it. And we’ve got a lot of moments where we haven’t. When they get a 10-point lead, then you put your head down, and it grows to 15. Instead of bucking up and finding a way back into the game.”
Thumbnail photo via Mark L. Baer/USA TODAY Sports
