Boston's season so far is a story about Jayson Tatum. He opened at Detroit shooting 6-for-23 with 0 makes on 7 threes in a game the Celtics blew from 22 up. Then he flipped it fast. He beat the Knicks with tough shot-making, 3 steals and nearly a triple-double, and then put 40 on Brooklyn in the second game of a back-to-back, finishing it with the overtime buzzer-beater. That's a big deal for a player coming off an Achilles tear, and he said before the season that he expected to play back-to-backs this year.
The Nets game is also the warning sign for Boston. Brooklyn came in winless, led at halftime and scored 35 in the 4th quarter to force overtime. Tatum got bailed out of a loose night. Paul George's 20 and Derrick White's 16 were good enough support, but this is not the same group that ran the Bulls off the floor on Monday.
Chicago's problem is on defense. The Bulls gave up 135 at Toronto, 124 at home to Washington and 134 in Boston, and their only win came when they scored 132 in Milwaukee. When they can't win a shootout, they haven't had a way to win at all. Without Claxton, someone has to defend the paint against a Boston team that just dropped 134 on them, and the Bulls haven't found that someone yet.
Boston comes in rested. The Celtics have nothing scheduled between the Nets game and Friday, and Devin Carter, out with mononucleosis, is still their only absence. Chicago has more questions: the Knicks game, 2 questionable forwards, and a turnaround with 1 day in between. Monday's 35-point margin is the starting point, but the Bulls have 2 days to change some of it.