After dropping the first two games of the series at home the Boston Celtics righted their ship as they came into Chicago for Game 3 and easily beat the Bulls 104-87. Even with the win the Celtics are down 2 games to 1 in the series, but it looks as though the Bulls will have to play this series without point guard Rajon Rondo who missed Game 3 and is out with a broken right thumb.
The Bulls came out and had a horrible opening quarter as they managed to score just 15 points. With the Bulls struggling the Celtics built a 10 point lead at 14-4 with 7:20 left in the quarter. Chicago did bounce back and cut that lead to four points at 14-10 with 5:41 left in the quarter. Boston then scored the next 13 points to push the lead back into double digits at 27-10 with 2:03 left in the quarter. Boston added one point to it’s lead in the final two minutes of the quarter and took a 33-15 lead into the 2nd quarter.
As bad as the Bulls where in the 1st quarter the Celtics where actually worse in the 2nd quarter. Boston managed to score just 11 points in the entire quarter. Luckily for the Celtics they had a big enough lead and while the Bulls did put up 26 points in the 2nd quarter it wasn’t enough to take the lead away from Boston. So even with an 11 point 2nd quarter the Celtics went into halftime with a three point lead at 44-41.
The Bulls cut the lead to one point at 44-43 on two made Jerian Grant free throws early in the 3rd quarter, but Boston ran off 9 of the games next 11 points to take a 53-45 lead with 9:11 left in the quarter. The Bulls never got closer than six points and Boston was able to build it’s double digit lead back at 60-50 with 6:15 left in the quarter. The Celtics lead never fell under 10 points and they where able to add three more pints to that lead taking a 76-63 lead into the final quarter.
While the 4th quarter was the tightest quarter played between the two teams Boston did find a way to build a 20 point lead 97-77 with 4:11 left in the game. While the Bulls where able to keep the Celtics lead under 20 points after that they never did get within 15 points of the lead and with the Celtics getting the last bucket of the game it was a 17 point 104-87 win for Boston.
While Rajon Rondo didn’t play for the Bulls he did end up getting into a little action. After Jae Crowder hit a jumper and jawed a little with the Bulls bench it appeared as though Rondo stuck out his leg in an attempt to trip Crowder as he went by. After the game Rondo said he was “stretching” his leg.
Al Horford was the Celtics top scorer with 18 points and he also led the team in rebounds with 8. Isaiah Thomas and Jae Crowder each had 16 points while Thomas also handed out a game high 9 assists. Avery Bradley added 15 points while Terry Rozier came off the Boston bench to score 11 points.
Dwayne Wade tied Horford for the games top scoring honors leading the Bulls with 18 points. Jimmy Butler had 14 points while Robin Lopez scored 12 and Nikola Mirotic added 11 points. Paul Zipser came off the Bulls bench to add 10 points while Cristiano Felicio grabbed a game high 11 rebounds off the Bulls bench. Wade, Mirotic and Michael Carter-Williams tied for the team lead in assists with 3 each.
The team get a day off as the series stays on Chicago for a Sunday start time of 5:30 p.m. cst and the Bulls ahead 2-1 in games.
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