On Sunday afternoon the Boston Celtics evened up their 1st round playoffs series with the Chicago Bulls at 2 games apiece as they easily cruised to a 104-95 win. So far neither team has been able to win a game on their home court.
The Celtics started the game on a 14-4 run after Isaiah Thomas hit a 3-pointer to give the Celtics their first double digit lead with 7:18 left in the quarter. The Bulls never got closer than eight points at 16-8 with 4:43 left in the quarter. Boston then built their biggest lead of the quarter with just 1:10 left to play at 30-17. Jimmy Butler split a couple of free throws to make it Boston 30-Chicago 18 after one quarter.
The Bulls had a much better offensive 2nd quarter as they actually outscored the Celtics 28-27, but the quarter didn’t start out that way. Boston scored 11 of the quarters first 12 points and had a 41-21 lead with 9:15 left to play. While the Bulls got close they could never get the lead under double digits. They cut it to 10 points with 1:14 left in the quarter. The teams played even in that final minute as the Celtics added one point to the lead and went into halftime with a 57-46 lead.
At the start of the 3rd quarter it was the Bulls who made a run. Chicago scored seven of the quarters first nine points to cut the lead to six points at 59-53. The Bulls continued to push and actually managed to tie the game at 63 all with 5:11 left in the quarter. Then the Bulls ended up taking their first lead of the game with the next basket, but the Celtics went right back to the lead and pushed it to double digits a couple of times, but by the end of the quarter the Bulls where down nine points at 79-70.
The teams played a dead even 4th quarter as each team scored 25 points in the quarter; which didn’t help the Bulls out. The closest Chicago could get in the 4th quarter was five points at 79-74 and then again at 81-76. The Celtics where again able to push the lead back to double digits at 86-76 with 9:00 minutes left in the game. The Bulls never got closer than eight points again and late in the game Boston had a 13 point lead before the Bulls cut into it to make it 104-95 game at the end.
Four of the five Celtics starters scored in double figures led by Isaiah Thomas who tied for the games high scorer with 33 points. Thomas also handed out a team high 7 assists. Gerald Green added 18 points while Jae Crowder had 11 points. Al Horford scored 15 points and grabbed a game high 12 rebounds. Kelly Olynyk chipped in 10 points off the Celtics bench.
Jimmy Butler led the Bulls in scoring as he was the other player with 33 points. Butler also handed out a game high 9 assists. Nikola Mirotic added 13 points while Dwayne Wade went for 11 points. Isaiah Canaan scored 13 points off the Bulls bench while Bobby Portis grabbed a team high 8 rebounds coming in off the bench.
The teams will again get an extra day off as they head back to Boston for Game 4 with the series tied 2-2. With the Celtics pretty much dominated Game’s 3 and 4 in Chicago after the Bulls took the first two games in Boston. Maybe the best thong for the Bulls is the fact that the game will be televised on TNT instead of ESPN.
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