I heard one of the local sportswriters say that we could throw out the Chicago Bulls inconsistent regular season play heading into the playoffs. I’m disappointed that I can’t remember who said this because through two games he’s right on.
The Chicago Bulls went into Boston and took the first two games in their playoff series against the Celtics as last night they won Game 2 by 14 points 111-97.
The Celtics scored the first seven points of the game before the Bulls came back to take their first lead of the game at 11-10. Chicago then went on a 9 to 1 run to take a 20-11 lead. After Boston broke the Bulls run Chicago was able to build it’s biggest lead of the quarter at 27-15 with 3:04 left to play. Boston was able to cut into the Bulls lead in those final three minutes as they scored nine of the quarters final 13 points. After one quarter the Bulls had a 31-26 lead.
With an 8 to 2 run to start the 2nd quarter the Celtics where able to regain the lead at 34-33 early in the quarter. There was a quick trade off of the lead between the teams before the Bulls went back to the lead and where able to build their lead back to double digits. Chicago had a 50-39 lead with 3:36 left in the quarter. The Celtics where again able to cut into the Bulls lead heading towards the end of a quarter, but this time Boston could only get the lead down to eight points as the Bulls went into halftime with a 54-46 lead.
Boston again got off to a quick start in the 3rd quarter as they scored nine of the quarters 13 points and cut the Bulls lead to three points at 58-55 with 9:30 left in the quarter. After a couple of free throws by Isaiah Thomas the Celtics had the Chicago lead down to two points at 62-60 with 7:26 left in the quarter. Then it was the Bulls turn to make a run. Chicago went on a 19 to 5 run to build a 14 point lead at 79-65 with 3:49 left to play. This time Boston was only able to knock two points off of the Bulls lead as Chicago took an 11 point lead 86-75 into the final quarter.
The closest the Celtics could get in the 4th quarter was seven points at 89-82 with 9:00 minutes left in the game. When Dwayne Wade hit a 3-pointer with 6:52 left in the game the Bulls had pushed their lead into double digits at 98-86. The Celtics where never able to cut the Bulls lead to under 10 points the remainder of the game and at one point the Bulls pushed their lead to 17 points at 109-92 with just 1:35 left to play. Boston added five points to the Bulls two points, but it was too late as the Bulls took Game 2 by a final score of 111-97.
The Bulls had six players score in double figures as all five of their starters and one bench player reached that point plateau. Jimmy Butler and Dwayne Wade each scored a game high 22 points for Chicago. Robin Lopez scored 18 points while Nikola Mirotic added 13 points. Rajon Rondo scored 11 points while handing out a game high 14 assists and grabbing a team high 9 rebounds. Paul Zipser came off the bench to score 16 points for the Bulls.
Isaiah Thomas led the Celtics in scoring with 20 points. Jae Crowder added 16 points while Avery Bradley scored 12 points. Marcus Smart came off the bench to score 13 points. Kelly Olynyk also reached double digits off the Celtics bench scoring 11 points/ Olynyk also handed out a team high 7 assists. Al Horford grabbed a game high 11 rebounds in the game.
The win gives the Bulls a 2-0 lead in the series. The teams will get two days off as the series shifts to Chicago for Friday nights Game 3.
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