Celtics down Bulls to take 3-2 series lead: 3 takeaways from Game 5

The Boston Celtics defeated the Chicago Bulls Wednesday night, 108-97, to take a 3-2 lead in the series.

The Boston Celtics, the home team, got the W on Wednesday night against the Chicago Bulls. Why is it important that we said they’re the home team? Because they’re the first home team to win in this series. Weird, right? Well, this whole series has been weird. So if you don’t understand it, don’t look at us, we’re just as dumbfounded as you. We’re just telling you the important part of each game.

Tonight, it was, not to be redundant, Weird with a capital “W.” The Bulls were ahead at some points in the game, but it never felt like they had momentum whatsoever. Kelly Olynyk played meaningful minutes. None of this makes sense.

Let’s just jump right in before we attempt to break down why Anthony Morrow was playing a substantial amount of minutes — by Morrow standards.

Takeaways

Jimmy Buckets was not getting buckets: I know. That was lame but stick with me.

Jimmy Butler is known for his scoring ability and how he can score in all circumstances. Well, tonight it was not so. The Celtics employed the double team on him, and he was mightily affected. Butler had 14 points and was 6-of-15 from the floor, which isn’t terrible, but he only shot one free throw. Yes, one, uno, one single free throw. The Celtics put clamps on him tonight.

It was unusual to see Butler shooting one free throw after shooting 23 in their previous matchup. When Jimmy Buckets gets shut down, someone else has to stand up and that someone was Dwyane Wade. Wade had 26 points, 11 rebounds, and eight assists. He flirted with a triple-double and tried to pick up the slack that the Bulls missed from Butler and Rondo, but it didn’t cut it.

The Celtics played as a team: Brad Stevens has cracked the age old art of making his team play together. It’s fun to watch. While the offense did seem stagnant at times, it ultimately was running smooth enough for the Celtics to win.

The Celtics were forced to play as a team Wednesday night because Isaiah Thomas had an off game. He had 24 points, five rebounds, and four assists.

You may think I may have taken a shot to the head, or something, for thinking that Thomas scoring 24 points is him having an “off night.” Hold your horses, let’s explain.

Thomas shot 10 percent from downtown. That is an abysmal percentage, especially since Stevens is attempting to embrace the new culture of launching the 3-ball as much as possible. He was also 35.3 percent from the field, which is weird as well. Sure enough, though, Thomas turned it on in the fourth and secured a win for his team.

The Celtics had to come together and find another scorer since Thomas was unable to perform in the first three quarters. Avery Bradley and Al Horford both stepped up to the plate. Bradley had 24 points on 58 percent shooting and Horford was close to his first triple-double of the series. He had 21 points, seven rebounds, and nine assists.

Boston illustrated to everyone watching that while they may not be the same without a full-force Thomas, they can still compete with any team.

The second units: The benches tonight were mediocre. No one necessarily stood out on either team, except for Kelly Olynyk who scored 14 points off the bench to pair with five rebounds. The Boston bench has never been stellar this series and it would be nice to see Bobby Portis or Paul Zipser go off again. The Celtics’ bench has been humming along at about the same pace this whole series, and it seems to work for them, so they should be fine.

For the Bulls, on the other hand, if their starting lineup isn’t doing it, other guys have to step up. This roster is dysfunctional already, and without Rajon Rondo on the court, the Bulls might want to wave the series goodbye.

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It still befuddles us that we are saying Rondo is the key to the Bulls’ success in this series considering he was such a problem early on. He truly is a walking paradox.