The Celtics needed to beat the Bulls by as much as possible Friday for NBA Cup purposes. The C’s got the victory in a 138-129 win over the Bulls in Chicago, though their NBA Cup dreams are up in the air (more on that below). Regardless, the Celtics improved to 16-3 on the season while the Bulls dropped to 8-13.
Notably, the Celtics were fully healthy for the first time this season. Luke Kornet was the lone player listed on the injury report, but he was upgraded to available. Kristaps Porzingis missed the first 17 games of the season and he’s now all good to go. But Derrick White left early in the third quarter due to a sore right foot, so that’s something to monitor going forward.
The Celtics came out hot as they rained 3-pointers on the Bulls to start the game. At one point, they held a 13-point lead as they opened 9-for-13 from behind the arc. The Bulls were relatively cold to start in comparison, though points came easy for both sides throughout Friday’s game. The Bulls eventually hit the Celtics back in what was a back-and-forth game. By halftime, the teams were tied at 67 points each.
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The Celtics and Bulls were locked into a close game from there. Jayson Tatum was huge as he put up 13 points in the third quarter alone. But then it was the Payton Pritchard show in the fourth quarter as he had his best game of his season.
Pritchard’s fourth-quarter heroics allowed the Celtics to put the finishing touches on Friday’s win, which included playing to the final buzzer for point differential purposes. Yes, that included a C’s timeout with 1.4 seconds left so they could get the last shot in Friday’s game. The Celtics got a Sam Hauser 3-pointer to push it to a nine-point win, so that could end up mattering for the NBA Cup.
Tatum posted 35 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Celtics on 12-for-18 shooting. Pritchard was also massive as he put up a season-high 29 points and seven rebounds. Vucevic had 32 points and 11 rebounds for the Bulls; Zach LaVine added another 29 points.
The Celtics next take on the first-place Cavaliers at 6 p.m. Sunday in Cleveland. Here are four takeaways from Boston’s win over Chicago:
6th man push: As if Pritchard hasn’t had enough heaters this season, he caught fire in the fourth quarter. He scored 19 points in the fourth alone as he was a huge reason why the Celtics came away with the win over the Bulls. Pritchard finished Friday with 29 points and seven rebounds, shooting 10-for-16 from the floor and 7-for-11 on 3-pointers. It was a huge Pritchard game — and it wasn’t just about the scoring. He also grabbed four offensive rebounds and was a pest defensively. Pritchard’s been a huge surprise for the Celtics and he showed again why Friday.
NBA Cup: The Celtics got a tough blow earlier Friday after the Hawks blew out the Cavaliers in an NBA Cup game. That meant the C’s could no longer win East Group C as they instead had to focus on being the wild-card team from the East. With the Celtics beating the Bulls, the Hawks also clinched East Group C to advance to the knockout stages of the NBA Cup. The C’s won’t know their NBA Cup fate until Tuesday’s round of games, though they’re idle that night. The C’s finished at 3-1 with a plus-23 point differential. Boston fans will want to keep an eye on two games: Magic at Knicks and Bucks at Pistons. Then, Boston will need a pair of results to go its way.
The first is for the Magic to beat the Knicks, which will lock Orlando into the winner of its group. The alternative is a Knicks victory, but they would need to beat the Magic (plus-60) by at least 37 points, so that’s unlikely. Then for Pistons vs. Bucks, that’s flexible. Both teams are 3-0 in their groups, so the winner of that game will be onto the knockout stages. But the Pistons (plus-28) and Bucks (plus-29) both have better point differentials than the Celtics. So C’s fans will hope for either a Bucks win by five points or a Pistons by six points.
Unicorn check: Naturally, all eyes continue to be on Porzingis considering it’s just the second game of his season. He finished Friday’s game with 21 points and eight rebounds in his 25 minutes, shooting 7-for-11 from the field. Porzingis isn’t quite all the way back considering that can be seen in his minutes totals as the team will be cautious with him coming off rehab. But he doesn’t look much different compared to last season. He’s still spacing the floor, protecting the rim and being a consistent post-up option for the Celtics. Porzingis also got a lot of work done near the bucket on mismatches as that’s a huge asset he brings to the team.
Rotation look: Considering the Celtics were healthy for the first time this season, plus potentially some NBA Cup implications, the rotation was mostly tight Friday. C’s coach Joe Mazzulla went with his top-8 guys for the first half: the preferred starters plus Al Horford, Pritchard and Hauser off the bench. Interestingly, Mazzulla went with big man Neemias Queta to open the fourth quarter for seven minutes. Queta’s rotation spot is up in the air with Porzingis back, but he got some run Friday.
Regardless, it’s going to be difficult to crack this talented Celtics rotation on a consistent basis when they’re fully healthy. But the C’s have a five-games-in-seven-days stretch coming up, starting Sunday in Cleveland, so the bench guys will get plenty of run through the next week of games.
