Blogs.Bulls.com

The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Chicago Bulls. All opinions expressed by Sam Smith are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Chicago Bulls or their Basketball Operations staff, parent company, partners, or sponsors.

Well, that second half didn’t go that well.

Perhaps the biggest sign was Cedric Simmons playing more minutes than Derrick Rose. I’ll check later to see if Rose was OK as he left late in the third quarter and didn’t return, sort of like the Bulls, who were swamped by the Celtics starters to open the third quarter and couldn’t recover and fell to 12-14 on the season.

Give the Bulls this. They don’t get blown out much. They play hard, if not always well. They’re just not in a class with this Celtics as they shredded the Bulls perimeter defense, or lack of it, to get Kendrick Perkins a career high on points. Perkins isn’t the most graceful or even coordinated big man, generally having to gather himself when he receives a pass to dunk. But Rajon Rondo constantly beat the Bulls on the perimeter, getting deep, and the Celtics had one of those layup drill type games with more than 60 points in the paint.

The Bulls did the bulk of their scoring on jumpers, which is no way to beat anyone scoring inside.

The Bulls have lost by more than 10 just three times this season, though the worst losses were twice to Boston and that miserable game in Portland. Luol Deng led with 19 and Thabo Sefolosha also made a rare appearance and had some nice moments. Simmons had a season high in points and Lindsey Hunter also got a good run, all signs if you didn’t see the score that things didn’t go well.

The Bulls are not in the Celtics’ league. But not many are this season as the Celtics won their 17th straight to go to 25-2 and headed for a much anticipated. Christmas Day game with the Los Angeles Lakers.