Jayson Tatum recorded his first career triple double on Monday night, but it wasn’t enough as Nikola Vucevic scored a game high 29 points to lead the Chicago Bulls past the Boston Celtics 102-96 at TD Garden in Boston.
Boston (31-27) scored the first nine points of the game and led the entire first half by as many as 12, taking a 48-42 lead into halftime. Chicago (24-33) took their first lead of the night 66-64 with 3:07 left in the third quarter on a Lauri Markkanen layup. The Bulls held a 74-66 advantage headed to the fourth quarter. Jaylen Brown led the Celtics back into a tie at 90-90 with a three-pointer with 3:25 left to play, but a Vucevic fadeaway jumper 20 seconds later gave the guests a lead they wouldn’t give back. After Chicago built the lead back to six, a pair of Tatum free throws cut it to 98-96 with 13.2 seconds remaining. The Bulls put it away by hitting 4-4 from the line in the closing seconds, ending a Boston six game win streak.
Brown led the Celtics in points in the defeat with 23. Tatum finished with 14 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists. Rookie Payton Pritchard had 14 points as well, and Tristan Thompson added 11 points and five rebounds. Vucevic added nine rebounds to his game high point total in the Bulls win on 13-23 shooting. Colby White had 19 points and seven assists, while both Gary Temple and Thaddeus Young contributed 13 points a piece. Boston has a tough back to back coming up as they host the second place team in the West Phoenix on Thursday night, before traveling to the second place team in the East in the Brooklyn Nets on Friday.
