Boston beat Chicago 125-111 in the Emirates NBA Cup, leading by as many as 32 after a 44-25 first quarter. Payton Pritchard scored 30 off the bench, the winning streak reached four, and the Bulls took the last period 37-26.
The game was decided before the first quarter ended.
Chicago led by as many as three early, and a 10-0 Boston run turned a 9-6 deficit into a 16-9 lead. An 8-0 burst followed that took the score from 27-18 to 35-18, and the quarter closed 44-25. Billy Donovan's successor on the Chicago bench, Tiago Splitter, spent three timeouts in the first 18 minutes, each one after a Boston run. By halftime it was 78-49. Six lead changes and one tie sound like a contest; a 32-point lead says it never really was one.
Pritchard scored, while White and Queta tilted the floor.
Pritchard: 30 points on 9-of-17 shooting, 9-of-9 free throws, two steals, plus-12 in 35 minutes. Grade A. Neemias Queta made 3 of 5 shots and 7 of 10 free throws for 13 points, and his plus-16 in 20 minutes tied for the team's best. Grade A-minus. Derrick White matched that plus-16 in 26 minutes with 9 points on 4-of-6, four assists and two steals, the quiet line that usually travels best. The bench scored 51.
Tatum and George carried volume, not efficiency.
Jayson Tatum had 26 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists, but he shot 9 of 20, went 2 of 7 from three and turned it over four times. Plus-5. Grade B. Paul George added 18 points, 8 assists and 3 steals in 27 minutes, plus-8, on 7-of-15. Grade B-plus. Mitchell Robinson went 4 of 4 for 11 points and still finished minus-3, the worst mark on the team. In a 14-point win, a single minus-3 is noise, not a verdict.
The fourth quarter goes in the notebook, not the headline.
Boston closed the final five minutes with Baylor Scheierman, Hugo Gonzalez, Queta, Pritchard and Sam Hauser, and finished with Chris Cenac Jr. and Ron Harper Jr. on the floor. Chicago won that period 37-26, with Caleb Wilson and Noa Essengue scoring nine apiece. Joe Mazzulla called timeouts at 88-111 and 92-111, which tells you the margin shrinking mattered to him more than the result did. Boston is 4-1, third, and 2-0 against a 1-5 Bulls team by a combined 49 points. The 66-16 pace has 77 games left to survive, and two of the next five are against Milwaukee. Next is a road back-to-back at Orlando on November 1 and Houston on November 2.
Who led the Celtics in scoring against the Bulls on October 30?
Payton Pritchard scored 30 points off the bench on 9-of-17 shooting and 9-of-9 free throws. Jayson Tatum added 26.
How many times have the Celtics beaten the Bulls this season?
Twice: 134-99 on October 26 and 125-111 on October 30. That is a combined margin of 49 points.
