Celtics vs. Bulls (Jan. 25): The highs, lows, and works in progress

The Boston Celtics got back into a winning streak against the Chicago Bulls on Monday night, winning 119 – 103 on the road while getting back their All-NBA small forward Jayson Tatum.

And while the Celtics managed to look just fine without recently-returned All-Star point guard Kemba Walker — out on rest after playing the night before against the Cleveland Cavaliers — there were certainly stretches where Boston’s twin star wing duo of Tatum and Jaylen Brown made one wonder just how lethal this team is going to be when it finally arrives at full strength. Tatum managed to put up 24 points and 5 assists in his return, and Brown 26 points and 5 rebounds, so little to complain about there.

But there were as always things good, bad and under construction — so let’s take a look at the game through that lens.

THE HIGHS

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• The return of Tatum and his play with Brown is, as we noted, tantalizing. As this team gets closer to full strength it's going to be exciting to see how these two spread their wings even further.

• Marcus Smart is really coming into his own as an elite floor general, becoming a more consistent, selective shooter -- hitting his second-best effective field goal percentage (47.6%) and career-high 6.2 assists per game as a result.

• Daniel Theis playing more comfortably alongside Tristan Thompson (and other bigs) is pushing the German to be a more consistent offensive threat, with Theis putting up big numbers yet again (19 points).

• A more consistent bench with players like Grant Williams (8 points), Jeff Teague (8 points), Javonte Green and Carsen Edwards (both 6 points) and especially Aaron Nesmith (9 points on 3-of-5 shooting) also bodes well for the future.

THE LOWS

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• The overall lack of intensity to start and in large chunks of the game needs monitoring. Some of it was undoubtedly due to weird lineups and tiredness from Tatum and Time Lord, but it's a recurrent issue those not recovering from extended absences need to remedy on a night-to-night basis.

• Thompson taking 0 field goal attempts and Semi Ojeleye 1 in a combined 33 minutes of floor time. It's fair to say we don't want them eating up too many possessions either, but they will need to find their sweet spot on that end of the ball -- and this wasn't it.

• 9 p.m. start times for games not on the west coast -- can we not?

THE WORKS IN PROGRESS

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• Figuring out how to balance rotations as players come back to available is going to take some work. Thankfully, the work done in the last two games has been against lesser opponents with successful outcomes.

• Keeping the collective foot on the gas; Boston may have been relatively low-energy Monday night against the Bulls, but they didn't fall asleep at the wheel either; progress?

• Whether the team will travel to Texas with the San Antonio Spurs sorting out a contact tracing situation; we should know more by mid-afternoon.

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