Bulls, not Celtics, look like the No. 1 seed
After Jimmy Butler hit a jumper in the lane over Marcus Smart in the second quarter one Celtics fan in the crowd, who identified himself as Mike S. from Everett, turned to his friend and said, “Why didn’t we trade for Jimmy?” A good question indeed, one that many other Parishioners of the Parquet and possibly Celtics star Isaiah Thomas might be asking themselves right now.
Butler, who scored 30 points in Game 1, had another strong showing in Game 2 with 22 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists, but the Celtics were undone by his helpers and the lack of assistance they provided Thomas, who scored 20 points on 6-of-15 shooting.
Through two games of their first-round playoff series with the Chicago Bulls the Celtics don’t look like a team that should have stood pat at the trade deadline or one that can stick around past the first round of the playoffs. If you were a sentient being just arriving to this corner of the universe you would have a difficult time correctly discerning which team is the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and which team is the No. 8 seed. It would be easy to assume the Bulls were the top-seeded team with conference finals aspirations, and the Celtics were the team that sneaked into the playoffs.
The Bulls spanked the Celtics, 111-97, Tuesday night at TD Garden to head back to Chicago with a 2-0 lead in this best-of-seven series. This was one of the fears with the Celtics getting the No. 1 seed — that they didn’t have the talent around Thomas or the playoff pedigree to back it up. The Celtics are now an alarming 2-10 in a dozen playoff games of the Thomas and Brad Stevens era.
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