Pritchard Huge 4th Quarter Takes Down Chicago, Celtics Win 138-129 vs Bulls

After dismantling the Los Angeles Clippers and getting three days off, the Boston Celtics travel to the Windy City for a matchup against the Chicago Bulls in their final game of the NBA Cup qualifying games. For the first time all season the Celtics have a clean bill of health on the injury report which is a great sign going into this important NBA Cup game.

With the Hawks beating the Cavs earlier in the day, the Celtics need to win this game for a chance at the wild card spot in the NBA Cup playoffs. There are a ton of different scenarios that need to take place in the Eastern Conference on Tuesday to help Boston, but none of that matters if they don’t take care of business against the Bulls.

On the Bulls very red court, the Celtics started the scoring with a Kristaps Porzingis on the wing. Both teams started this game playing at a blistering pace but Boston’s three ball was the great equalizer as they made 5 threes in the first five minutes, 3 of which from Jaylen Brown. The three point barrage continued to be the Celtics weapon of choice as they shot 9-16 from beyond the arc in the first quarter.

With the Celtics at full strength, Mazzulla decided to start the game with Horford, Hauser, and Pritchard being the only players off the bench. The Bulls took advantage of some Celtics turnovers but Boston still had a 39-30 lead after one quarter of play. Jayson Tatum had another dominant first quarter as he stuffed the stat sheet with 12 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal on 5-9 shooting from the field and 2-4 from three.

Torrey Craig hit back to back threes to start the second quarter as Chicago went on a 10-3 run to start the second quarter and the Celtics lead to 2. A Celtics timeout did not seem to stop the Bulls run. With Porzingis on the bench, the Bulls started to attack the paint and the Celtics rim protection became non existent with Al Horford being the only center on the floor.

The Celtics offense ran stagnate as they missed 10 straight shots at one point and the Bulls took advantage. Talen Horton-Tucker scored 7 straight points for the Bulls mid way through the quarter not backing down to the Celtics what so ever. Chicago had 11 players touch the court in the first half and all 11 scored at least once.

To counter the Bulls attack the Celtics inserted the starters back into the game and that calmed the waters. The Celtics post up game with Tatum and Porzingis and driving to the paint gave Chicago’s defense fits. Boston went on a 14-0 run retake the lead but Nikola Vucevic hit 4 straight threes to match every Celtics basket. Tatum hit a three at the buzzer as they went into halftime all tied up at 67-67.

Jayson Tatum (19), Derrick White (16), Kristaps Porzingis (14), and Jaylen Brown (13) combined to score 62 of the Celtics 67 points in the first half. The Celtics three point shooting took a nosedive in the second quarter however as they went 3-11 from the beyond the arc.

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Nikola Vucevic continued to put on an absolute clinic. He made 2 floaters, a three and got to the free throw line, as he scored 20 of the Bulls 23 points to end the first half and start the second half. The Bulls opened up an 8 point lead on the Celtics as Boston’s offense continued to struggle.

After a Celtics timeout at the 8 minute mark, Jayson Tatum started to make his mark on the game. Tatum grabbed a rebound that ended in a fast break Pritchard three, blocked Ayo Dosumu on the next possession and came back down to hit a floater over Dosumu that ended in an and-1. Tatum scored 8 straight points to keep Boston in the game as Chicago’s defense could not stop him from getting anything he wanted.

Both teams continued to put on an offensive clinic as almost every time down the floor for the last 5 minuets of the third quarter ended in a basket and the quarter ended tied 96-96. Jayson Tatum continued his hot quarter, scoring 13 points in third alone and reaching 32 points going into the fourth quarter. The Celtics were without Derrick White in the fourth quarter as he was ruled “Doubtful to Return” with a sore right foot.

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Neemias Queta started the fourth quarter for the Celtics and made an impact grabbing an offensive rebound that led to a Brown layup. Jalen Phillips checked in for Chicago and hit a three, the 12th Bull to score tonight. Payton Pritchard scored 8 straight points for the Celtics and Talen Horton-Tucker hit 6 shots in a row to match him. The real highlight to start the quarter was when Jaylen Brown threw down a thunderous poster dunk on Jalen Smith to force a Bulls timeout.

Payton Pritchard went absolutely nuclear for Boston in the first 7 minutes of the quarter, scoring 19 points with 5 threes, destroying the Bulls defense in White’s absence. Even with Pritchard’s scoring, Chicago had answered with a 7-1 run, highlighted by a Zach Lavine three to cut the Celtics lead to 3 with three minutes to go.

Out of a Celtics timeout, Tatum drove his way to the rim for a slam and Jrue Holiday hit a three to extend the Celtics lead back to 8 with two minutes left. Lavine hit a three to cut it to a 5 point game but Jrue Holiday turned a Jaylen Brown airball into a put back layup with 20 seconds to go to ice the game. Sam Hauser put the cherry on top of this game with a three at the buzzer to give the Celtics a 138-129 win and kept their hopes of making the NBA Cup playoffs alive.

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Jayson Tatum was the leading scorer for the Celtics in this game as he dominated the Bulls for 35 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists on 12-18 shooting from the field and 4-8 from three. Payton Pritchard’s huge fourth quarter allowed him to finish with a season high 29 points, shooting 10-16 from the field and an absurd 7-11 from beyond the arc. This win also puts the Celtics a half a game out of 1st place in the Eastern Conference after the Cavs lost back to back games.

The fight for the number 1 seed will be put to the test in the Celtics next game on Sunday December 1st against the Cleveland Cavaliers at 6pm.