Dud for the Chicago Bulls in win over the Celtics: Lonzo Ball
It’s hard to pick someone for the Bulls as a dud in this comeback win over the Celtics. Star center Nikola Vucevic has claimed this spot more often than not for the Bulls in our version of studs and duds since the start of the preseason.
But Vucevic was pretty good for the Bulls all-around in this game. He was very close to coming up with a triple-double in this game. Meanwhile, two-way point guard Lonzo Ball struggled to get his shot going from the field outside of one very hot stretch from beyond the arc.
The one thing that saved the performance in this game for Lonzo was his three-point shooting. Every single one of the four fields that Lonzo knocked down in 10 attempts came from downtown. He registered a dozen points, six rebounds, four assists, one steal, no blocks, and three turnovers.
Some early untimely turnovers and going cold from two-point range down the stretch help Lonzo to land this spot on the list. He tied for a team-high in turnovers in this game, shot the worst percentage from the field, and boasted the second-worst plus/minus of anyone in the starting five.
Lonzo also defended the star forward combination of Brown and Tatum often when they were heating up in the second and third quarter. That wasn’t necessarily the fault of Lonzo, as he was defending tight and wasn’t really missing assignments. But that still wasn’t the best look.
The good news here is that Lonzo still had just an alright game that wasn’t all that bad. There was no one that really had a disastrous game for the Bulls, hence the comeback double-digit win over the Celtics.