Boston – Marcus Smart Out-of-service Jason Tatum And Jaylyn Brown After the Boston Celtics lost their third game in a row Monday night, saying the star duo needed to get their teammates involved more.
“Every team knows we’re trying to go with Jason and Jaylen,” Smart said after losing 128-114 to the Chicago Bulls. “Every team is programmed and studied to stop Jason and Jaylen. I think everyone’s scouts report is to get these guys to pass the ball. They don’t want to pass the ball.”
Brown and Tatum combined for 48 points, but struggled late in a game that saw the Bulls return from a 19-point deficit in the second half. Tatum scored two points on a 1-for-8 shot in the fourth quarter, while Brown was healthy on just two shots.
“This is something they will learn,” Smart said. “They’re still learning. We’re proud of the progress they’re making, but they’ll have to take it a step further and find ways to not only create for themselves but also create others on this team to open a court for them later in the game.”
“…It’s something we’ve been asking them to do while they’re learning. We just have to keep helping these people do that to help our team.”
The Celtics led 94-75 about three minutes before the end of the third quarter and were still leading 103-89 when entering the fourth. But Chicago scored the first 12 points in fourth to cut the difference to two points, 103-101, with just over 8 minutes left.
Come to Dosunmu, the second-round draft pick that was his first double-digit scoring game with 14 points, hit a triple pointer with 6:53 remaining to put the Bulls ahead 106-105. The Celtics regained the lead for a brief period before Chicago scored 18 of the next 20 points.
“We got up and felt comfortable and were a little sweet thinking the game ended in the third quarter,” said Celtics coach Im Odoka, who fell 2-5 in his first season at the helm. “We started partying early. It’s a good lesson learned: You mess with the game, and it will come back to bite you.”
The bulls improved to 6-1 with the win.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this story.