BOSTON - The Boston Celtics didn’t just beat the Bulls again on Wednesday. They stretched the game open early, built a cushion as large as 32 points, and then coasted to a 125-110 win in the first Emirates Cup group play game on a green floor that changed nothing about the result.
The opening half belonged to Boston’s pace, spacing, and shot-making. Jayson Tatum set the tone with a line that looked almost routine by his standards: 26 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists. Most of his damage came by attacking the rim, where he kept putting Chicago under pressure without needing to overcomplicate the night.
Payton Pritchard was even more punishing off the bench. He scored 30 points, and most of that work came before halftime. At one point, as Sean Grande noted on the radio broadcast, Pritchard had 48 points in 37 combined minutes against the Bulls this week.
Paul George gave Boston a full night on both ends, finishing with 18 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals. The steals mattered most.
Two of them directly turned into five points, and another led to a three after an offensive rebound. All three came early, but his impact on defense never really faded.
Boston’s offense kept bending Chicago with movement and misdirection. Tatum’s screening repeatedly created clean looks and layups, sometimes by dragging defenders with him and sometimes by simply making them lose track of what was happening.
On one play, it led to a Tatum two-handed dunk off an inbounds pass from Derrick White. With George on the floor as another real threat, the Celtics kept forcing the Bulls into impossible choices.
Before the game, Bulls head coach Tiago Splitter spelled out the problem in plain terms: “I think Boston is one of the best teams in the league off the ball,” Splitter said. “It's really difficult to be aware of the flare [screens] that are coming.
You got to really talk on defense. They have a bunch of shooters that can come off those off screens, and then you know at the same time you have Tatum [isolating] at the top, and he could drive the ball anytime.
So you got to be aware of the flares going on.”
Chicago still made things worse for itself. The Bulls kept giving up easy threes by helping off the wrong shooters, including a wide-open Sam Hauser corner look after a defender left him to help on Tatum’s drive.
They made a nearly identical mistake a few possessions later by leaving Pritchard one pass away. Against this Boston group, those are the kinds of breakdowns that get punished immediately.
The Bulls also struggled with the physical and mental side of the game. They were slow to fight through screens, looked disconnected on defense, and never found a way to take advantage when the Celtics loosened their grip in the second half. Boston had already done the damage by then, and Chicago couldn’t create enough to make the comeback real.
The Celtics’ own energy dipped a bit after halftime, especially in the third quarter, where the pace bogged down and the tone turned flat. Neemias Queta gave up two straight offensive rebounds and was quickly pulled after checking in, with Joe Mazzulla clearly unhappy with the stretch. Queta went back in late in the quarter, but the issue lingered.
Boston’s attack also lost some of its edge in the second half. In the first half, the Celtics took 17 shots at the rim and made 14. After halftime, they got 15 tries there, made eight, and were blocked four times.
Jordan Wash also found himself on the wrong end of a few costly plays. He picked up four fouls, including two on Norm Powell three-pointers. And yes, that came on a night the source had singled him out as the Celtics’ secret weapon.
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