There aren’t many players who would be criticized after scoring 67 points and shooting 53 percent over their previous two games, but Rajon Rondo is unique that way. He gets killed when he’s too passive and dissected when he turns into a scoring machine.

The Celtics returned to their balanced roots against the Bulls on Thursday night, but something still wasn’t right. Rondo took 17 shots, just one more than Paul Pierce. Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen each had 13 attempts, and the four most important players on the roster took 75 percent of the shots.

That’s the ideal, but the Celtics still shot 40 percent and had assists on less than half of their made shots. They can’t win that way when their offense is so reliant on jump shots and their roster lacks pure shot creators. Whether it’s due to lack of talent, old legs or schemes, they don’t get many second-chance opportunities, and they don’t get to the free throw line consistently. In order to score enough points to win, they have to shoot close to 50 percent. 

Celtics coach Doc Rivers is fond of saying that it’s a make-miss league, and his team did plenty of missing in its 89-80 loss. Rivers told reporters in Chicago that he was happy with the shots his team took, but 40 percent from the field isn’t going to get it done against anyone, let alone a good team like the Bulls. It’s the Celtics’ fourth loss in their last five games and the fourth straight time they have lost the second game of a back-to-back on the road.

Give them a little bit of credit for fighting back from a double-digit deficit in the second half, but absolutely hold them accountable for a disastrous second quarter in which they were outscored 26-11 and outrebounded, 19-3. Let that last number sink in some more. There were 22 rebounds available in the second quarter and the Celtics were able to get to three of them.

Despite the C's shoddy work on the glass, their defense has remained consistent and that gives them the best hope of a turnaround. But even the best defenses can’t compensate when a mediocre shooting team like the Bulls makes 10-of-21 shots from 3-point range. They also can’t compensate for an offense that struggles so much to score points, especially when the talents of their best players aren’t meshing as seamlessly as they once did.

Almost midway through the season, the Celtics are stuck in an existential quandary. With a roster stuck in the ice age, they have few players who can keep up with Rondo in the open court, but they are at their best when he has open space in order to operate. Even with Kevin Garnett back in the lineup and getting 10 boards, they’re a bad rebounding team, which makes it even harder to run in transition. It’s becoming clearer by the game that they can’t become Rondo’s team until the assembled pieces are able to complement his abilities.

Take Chris Wilcox, for example. A 10-year journeyman notable mainly for having never been on a team that made the playoffs, Wilcox has become reborn running alongside Rondo. Over the last three games, Wilcox has scored 37 points on 17-for-25 shooting. He’s made 13 shots at the rim and Rondo has assisted on 10 of them.

Rondo is turning Wilcox into a mini-version of Blake Griffin, and when the Celtics set out to try to woo free agents this summer they should include a video package of every alley-oop and lob from Rondo that ends in a thunderous Wilcox jam.

As for the here and now, the Celtics -- as streaky and inconstant as they’ve been -- are essentially just a middling .500 team with a handful of big names. They’ve been stuck in seventh seed limbo for weeks now and everyone knows that means a probable first-round date with either the Bulls or Heat. The goal has been to simply get to the playoffs in one piece and give themselves a puncher’s chance, but they may be all out of haymakers by the time this hectic season ends.

The nuclear alternative is on low simmer at the moment. The trade market has been slow, and players signed in the offseason can’t be dealt until March 1. Earlier on Thursday, team president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said on The Big Show that he continues to listen, but there’s nothing imminent.

"I'm exploring opportunities for both, always. To help the here and now and to prepare for the future," Ainge said. "A lot of it depends on the opportunities that are there. Right now, there's nothing in the works for the Boston Celtics. Doc Rivers likes our team. I talked with our four All-Stars recently, they all really like our team and they feel like they're better than they've been playing, and so, we'll see. These next few weeks will be big.”