Takeaways from the Bulls’ 134-99 loss to the Celtics

BOSTON — Caleb Wilson got exactly 12 seconds to breathe before Jayson Tatum took his first crack at the rookie.

The Boston Celtics are quick to attack off the whistle, and Paul George dove straight to the basket after the opening tip was won in Monday’s 134-99 loss. When his missed layup was cycled back out to the top of the key, Wilson found himself scrambling to close out to one of the league’s most elite scorers.

Tatum smelled blood. It’s a necessary skill for a six-time All-Star with a ring. Tatum saw Wilson adjusting his feet and showing his hands, almost overeager to do his best job, and Tatum tried his best to put the Bulls’ rookie on the hardwood.

He almost succeeded. Wilson bit too hard on his crossover, knees buckling slightly as he lunged right and Tatum broke back left. But Tatum also helped Wilson to the floor with a friendly hand on the shoulder, extending his arm just enough to earn a whistle from a veteran officiating crew. Wilson took it as a win, pounding his palms together as the crowd at TD Garden rained down a disgruntled shower of boos. The first battle went to the rook.

Wilson needed to take those wins where he could get them. Tatum scored an almost effortless 23 points in a laborious loss for the Bulls, who floundered through the second half after a somewhat promising first half. The rookie might not believe in moral victories, but his first showing against one of the true Eastern Conference powerhouses laid out a reasonable road map for Wilson to follow in rematches.

Aspects of Wilson’s game seem to be ahead of schedule — and none more than his favorite shot, a turnaround jumper in the midrange that he sank four times against the Celtics. This is the type of shot that many rookies are urged not to take. It’s high variance, low reward, the type of look that doesn’t make the analytics sing. Yet Wilson finds comfort in this finish, often using it to attract defenders and create other options to offload the ball to a teammate on the counter.

Still, Wilson remains a raw rookie prospect at age 20 — and after four games, his patterns for growth are becoming more evident. He still can’t hit from 3, going 1-for-5 in Boston to extend a 5-for-28 (17.9%) start to the season from behind the arc. The Celtics tripped him up with on-ball pressure, forcing him into three turnovers and speeding up his decision-making. The lows are still more consistent than the highs — a textbook part of the rookie experience.

Here are three more takeaways from the loss.

1. Defensive adjustments

Each matchup against a top East contender opens up a greater need for concern surrounding this roster’s defensive abilities — both individually and as a team. The Bulls showed some signs of improvement in their off-ball help on the weak side, rotating to create three blocks in the first quarter alone. They mixed in a sporadic zone in an attempt to throw the Celtics off their offensive rhythm.

The thing about playing the Celtics is that plenty of this defensive scheming can work out perfectly — and it still won’t matter. Boston shot 21-for-44 from behind the 3-point arc, buoyed by a scorching 7-for-10 night from Payton Pritchard. When Pritchard stepped back on Buddy Hield to down his sixth 3 of the night in the final two minutes of the third quarter, the responding roar from the crowd drowned out the officiating whistles as coach Tiago Splitter called a timeout.

The Bulls allowed 19 offensive rebounds for 16 second-chance points, a disparity that was spread evenly between the Celtics’ frontcourt and backcourt. And while the Celtics did commit plenty of mistakes of their own — finishing the game with 24 turnovers — the Bulls were not efficient in converting those errors into scoring, tallying only 17 points off turnovers compared to Boston’s 39.

2. Inefficiencies plague offense

Shooting is a concern on both ends of the court for the Bulls. Norman Powell found his shooting rhythm from deep against the Celtics, knocking down four of his seven attempts (57.1%) after averaging 4.7 made baskets from behind the arc on a 34.1% clip during his first three games with the Bulls. But the rest of the Bulls rotation remains miserably uncomfortable from deep, shooting a combined 8-for-37 (21.6%) on the night.

The Bulls took seven of their 15 shots in the third quarter from behind the arc. They made only two of them. That inefficiency — paired with a desperate stretch of eight total turnovers — resulted in a 19-point third quarter that buried the Bulls by the end of the frame.

“A lot of games are lost in that third quarter,” Powell said. “Whether the team is up big or down big, you’ve got to come out with the right mindset and the same attention to detail, the same aggressiveness offensively and defensively as a collective. It’s not one person. Collectively, we’ve just got to be better.”

By the fourth quarter, the game was out of hand enough to allow Splitter to give lengthier runs to rookies Jaylin Sellers, Tobe Awaka and Dailyn Swain. The Bulls spent most of the fourth quarter running lineups of entirely first- and second-year players, a valuable opportunity for the team’s development focus.

3. Nic Claxton nearing return

The Bulls could get some reinforcements in the frontcourt in the coming weeks as Nic Claxton edges toward his debut with the team. Claxton is currently slated for a reevaluation next Monday after missing most of the preseason and the opening weeks of the regular season with a strained hamstring.

Claxton went through a non-contact workout Monday morning in Boston and responded well to a variety of activities, including lateral cuts and rim finishing drills. The center still has not been cleared for contact, but Splitter voiced some optimism that he could be upgraded to practice with teammates soon.