Jared Sullinger is in a shooting slump, so he turned off his phone and practiced until 2 am

Over the Celtics' current three-game losing streak, Jared Sullinger has not been himself shooting the basketball.  The third-year power forward is 4-for-21 from the field for a total of just 10 points in Boston's last three games.  After going 0-for-5 and failing to score in Friday's loss to the Knicks, Sullinger decided he'd had enough.  Via Marc D'Amico of Celtics.com:

Following what may have been the worst performance of his young career ... Sullinger jumped into his car and drove out to the team’s practice facility in Waltham, Mass. He needed to be alone, accompanied only by his thoughts and the sound of his basketball falling through the net.

'I’ve been doing that since I was in high school,' Sullinger said of his late-night visit to the gymnasium, which began no earlier than 11 p.m. 'I have a bad game and I used to ask my dad, ‘Can we go to the gym?’ I just get some shots up and just get back to what works for me.'

Under the dimmed lights of an otherwise vacant facility, Sullinger got to work. He fired up hundreds of shots. He honed his offensive skills. He closed his eyes and saw what he should have done to lead the Celtics to a victory against an archrival. ...

He did not leave the facility until after 2 a.m.

And from Chris Forsberg of ESPN Boston:

'I shut my phone off,' Sullinger said. 'I don’t like talking. Honestly, the past four or five days, my phone has been completely off. Powered down. Don’t even check it. Don't do anything. It’s just who I've been.'

This is the kind of stuff that makes me believe Sully will be an All-Star someday.  He's already dramatically improved his three-point shooting, from 27 percent last season to 36 percent this year.



Follow Mark Vandeusen on Twitter @LucidSportsFan