The Boston Celtics bounced back from a tough road trip, leading the entire second half against the hapless Chicago Bulls on their way to a 111-82 victory.
There’s nothing like some home cooking and a date with the Chicago Bulls for the Boston Celtics to forget all about the recent road woes.
Boston returned home to the TD Garden to defeat Chicago, 111-82, Wednesday night in the first game back home since a 1-4 road swing. The Celtics led by as many as 33 points and coasted to victory.
Jaylen Brown (18 points) was Boston’s high scorer, leading six Celtics in double figures. After a slow start, Kyrie Irving took command of the Boston offense, driving hard to the hoop and creating for himself and others.
Irving registered 17 points, 7 assists, and 6 rebounds while playing only 27 minutes. He made his only three-pointer, and shot 6-for-8 from the field.
The Celtics took the lead for good early in the second quarter and held at least a 10-point cushion the entire second half.
https://twitter.com/NBCSCeltics/status/1062886920349315072
Boston emptied the bench in the fourth quarter, with end-of-bench guys Guerschon Yabusele and Brad Wanamaker playing the game’s final minutes and scoring three points each. With Marcus Morris missing the game due to illness, Semi Ojeleye took his spot in the rotation, posting a plus-23 while scoring 4 points in 22 minutes.
Zach LaVine, who entered play averaging more than 27 points per game, was held to just 10 points on 3-for-11 shooting by Boston. He also committed four turnovers.
Justin Holiday made two three-pointers early for Chicago, then missed the rest of his 10 field goal attempts. Jabari Parker came out of the gates firing for the Bulls, scoring 14 points in the first half, but he finished the game with only 14 points on 13 shots to go along with 5 turnovers.
The Bulls played like a team of young and inexperienced players, committing 22 turnovers, many of which were foolish passes, or silly mistakes.
Other the hand, Boston only tallied 13 turnovers, against 27 assists on 42 made field goals.
I brought in my brothers, high school basketball coaches, to help me with the three keys to the Celtics win, as they improve to 8-6 on the season, 4-1 at home.