LeBron James offers condolences to Boston Celtics All-Star Isaiah Thomas

Isaiah Thomas’ Nike Kobe A.D. sneakers. The Celtics have shown they can contain Butler in spurts, but it remains to be seen if they can limit him for an entire 48 minutes. They did not recover.

While both the Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Clippers avoided their second straight defeats at home on Tuesday, the Celtics were again unable to solve Chicago. They care about one another and they support one another. The Bulls hammered every last nail in the coffin until the buzzer sounded with a 111-97 win. In Game 1, it was Bobby Portis coming off the Bulls bench to tally a near double-double of 19 points and nine rebounds.

Jimmy Butler again led the way for the eighth-seeded Bulls with 22 points, with some help from Robin Lopez (18 points, 8 rebounds) and a rejuvenated Dwyane Wade (22 points) and Rajon Rondo (11 points, 14 assists). Thomas missed 6 of 13 free-throw attempts, had two assists and committed five turnovers. Thomas was able to elevate to the moment on the adrenaline of the circumstances in game 1, but for the most part ran into trouble in game 2.

Chicago didn’t even shoot all too well, either from the floor or from 3, but their effort defensively held Boston to similar numbers.

Boston hopes they can rebound from this loss by improving their rebounds, as the team has been one of the worst in defensive rebound percentage. When Chicago’s guards penetrate, they put pressure on Boston’s defense to collapse.

“As much as we’ve talked about Rondo, Butler and Wade, Lopez has crushed us”, Celtics coach Brad Stevens said.

The Celtics embraced the concept of Playoff Rondo for five postseason runs in Boston, but this time around, they’re trying to figure out a way to stop it. When Wade was with the Miami Heat, Rondo’s game prep frustrated him on numerous occasions during playoff matchups with the Celtics. Their zeal in desperation led to more failures than triumphs. The Bulls must not lose focus in Game 3 as momentum can shift quickly. Stevens tried throwing a little bit of everything at the Bulls – rolling out Terry Rozier and Tyler Zeller – but nothing worked for very long. “I think we did a really good job of being aware of that”.

“He’s going to go home [Wednesday] to Seattle and then he’ll rejoin us in Chicago”, Stevens said. “And hopefully we’ll be more patient on Friday”.

While he said they’re “never going to make excuses”, he acknowledged that it was a tough night on everyone in Boston’s locker room. Have failed to score 100 points in three of their last four postseason games dating back to a year ago. The backup point guard proved to be a liability today, but Rondo was spectacular.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this hard time.

Milwaukee are one of the youngest teams in the National Basketball Association and their rising stars had an off night in Toronto.