Canaan named starting point guard for Game 5
Isaiah Canaan has gone from inactive in the first three games of the playoffs to the Chicago Bulls' new starting point guard.
To the surprise of no one, coach Fred Hoiberg confirmed Canaan will start Wednesday's Game 5 in Boston. Seeing his first action of the series Sunday, Canaan scored 13 points in 34 minutes of action.
"I really thought he did a good job picking up the ball and pressuring the point a full 94 feet," Hoiberg said Monday at the Advocate Center.
"I thought his initial ball pressure was good. We have to get off to a much better start if we want to have any chance of winning another game in this series."
Canaan spoke to reporters before Hoiberg made the announcement, so he didn't comment specifically on being named the starter.
The fourth-year guard from Murray State began the season in the Bulls' rotation but essentially disappeared after the first week of December.
"It felt good to be out there, battle with my teammates," Canaan said. "I just want to go out there and give energy, and like I said, just make my opponent as miserable as possible. The opportunity came and I just wanted to take full advantage of it."
Backup point guards Jerian Grant and Michael Carter-Williams have struggled while trying to replace the injured Rajon Rondo.
Grant started the past two games but was pulled less than five minutes into Game 4 and never returned. Carter-Williams was scoreless in eight minutes of action.
Canaan played the first nine minutes of the third quarter Sunday and helped the Bulls go from an 11-point deficit to a 65-63 lead.
They trailed by 2 when Carter-Williams replaced Canaan, and that's when Isaiah Thomas led Boston on the bulk of a 12-0 run.
Dwyane Wade referenced that moment in the locker room after Game 4.
"That was a tough one. We all worked our tail off to get it back, and that goes back to giving up 30 points in the first quarter, being down 12 early; we've got to use so much energy to get back," he said. "Then we make a sub and Isaiah (Thomas) goes to work. That was a crucial time in the game, and it kind of hurts."
It will be interesting to see who plays backup point guard Wednesday: Grant, Carter-Williams or none of the above.
The Bulls have played at times without a true point guard on the floor.
Rondo gets cast off:
Rajon Rondo was not wearing a cast on his right wrist when the Bulls started practice Monday at the Advocate Center.
Unfortunately for the Bulls, that has nothing to do with the broken right thumb that has kept him out of action the past two games.
Rondo still wore the same brace on the thumb and appeared to have his wrist wrapped. He missed three games late in the regular season with a sprained right wrist.
When Rondo went out with the broken thumb after Game 2, doctors decided to put a cast on his right wrist to continue to heal that injury.
"His wrist tendon has quieted down a little bit so just decided to remove the cast," coach Fred Hoiberg said. "But he's still in a splint for his thumb and wrist."
So Rondo still is out indefinitely, and Hoiberg said he definitely won't play in Game 5. The Bulls are 2-0 in this series when Rondo plays and 0-2 when he doesn't.
Stevens stays calm:
Boston coach Brad Stevens didn't have a strong response Monday to the accusation made by Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg about Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas getting away with a carrying violation on most every possession.
"I think there's a reason why the best scorers are really hard to guard, and in Isaiah's case it's not any different than some of the other better scorers," Stevens said on a conference call with reporters, according to celtics.com.
"He's just got a tremendously high skill level, a tremendous change of pace, and he's just a hard guy to guard. He's a hard guy to keep in front of."