Payton Pritchard came off the bench to score a game-high 28 points to lead the Boston Celtics to a 134-99 victory over the visiting Chicago Bulls on Monday night.
Pritchard made 7-of-10 shots from behind the 3-point arc.
Jayson Tatum added 23 points, seven rebounds and six assists for Boston, which made 21 of its 44 3-point attempts and had a 54-40 edge in rebounds.
Norman Powell led the Bulls with 20 points. Caleb Wilson tossed in 17, and Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis each finished with 11. Leonard Miller had nine points and nine rebounds.
Chicago was 33 of 84 from the field (39.2%).
Each team committed 25 turnovers.
Boston led 33-21 after one quarter, and had its largest lead in the first half, 44-28, with 9:12 left in the second quarter. Miller made a layup to cap a 12-0 run that cut Boston’s lead to 44-40, but an 8-1 spurt put the Celtics up 54-44 with 3:27 remaining in the half. Boston led 66-54 at halftime.
Tatum had 19 points, six rebounds and five assists in the first half. The Bulls were 18 of 46 from the field (39.1%) through the first two quarters.
The Bulls were within seven points early in the second half, but Boston began to take control midway through the third quarter. An 11-1 run handed Boston a 95-71 lead, and three straight Pritchard 3-pointers extended Boston’s advantage to 104-73 with 43.6 seconds remaining in the third.
Boston led 105-75 after three quarters. Pritchard tossed in 19 points in the third, and he did most of his damage when Tatum was on the bench with foul trouble.
The Celtics had a 112-80 lead following a Mike Conley 3-pointer with 8:36 to play, and led by as many as 40 points in the final quarter.
