The Boston Celtics dethroned the Chicago Bulls 115-101, winning their fourth straight game and for the eighth time in nine games on Monday evening.
Anfernee Simons led the Celtics with 27 points, Payton Pritchard contributed 21, while Neemias Queta added 13 points and 13 rebounds.
After Jaylen Brown tied his career-high with 50 points, he had a cold shooting night with 14 points on 6-of-24 from the field.
On the other hand, Bulls’ Matas Buzelis dropped 26 points, which nearly held under 100 points in their second straight loss.
Boston led by 21 points at halftime and was not threatened by the cold-shooting Bulls until a momentum swing in the last five minutes.
Chicago cut it to 106-96 on Nikola Vucevic’s three-pointer with 3:34 to play, as they did not reach the 100-point mark until just over a minute left.
The Celtics led by 17 at the end of the first quarter and, despite shooting only 32%.7% late in the second quarter, pushed their advantage to 49-27 on Brown’s short jumper in the lane.
Pritchard hit a fadeaway three at the buzzer, making it 54-33 at halftime.
The Bulls were threatening a team-record low points for a half, as they missed 20 of its first 23 attempts from beyond the arc.
They also played without starter Josh Giddey, who was out due to a hamstring injury.
Chicago aims to bounce back at Detroit, while Boston aims to host the Nuggets on Wednesday.
