Celtics easily run over and past Bulls

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BOSTON – The Boston Celtics will be the first to tell you it’s good to be home.

They certainly played like it on Wednesday as they pulled away against Chicago and never looked back in handing the Bulls a 111-82 thumping.

For Boston (8-6), the win comes after having lost four of their five games on their recently concluded West coast trip.

With questions about the starting lineup, the rotation and whether Danny Ainge and company should pursue adding a veteran, the Celtics responded with the kind of performance you should expect from a team considered to be among the league’s best when playing a team firmly situated in the league’s basement of bad squads.

But this did not look like a blowout in the making, not after Chicago led for all of the first quarter which ended with the Bulls on top 24-19.

Boston spent the early portion of the second quarter getting back in the game, and the latter part pulling away.

An Al Horford fade-away jumper capped off a 23-6 Celtics run which put them ahead 42-30. Boston’s control remained strong as they went into the half with a 51-35 lead.

The third quarter was more of the same for Boston as the Celtics opened with an 8-2 spurt to push their lead past the 20-point plateau for the first time (59-37) in the game.

Chicago (4-11) was able to chip away at Boston’s lead for some of the third quarter, but the Celtics control of the game was never in question as they pulled away for a much-needed cushy win.  

Here are the Stars, Studs and Duds from Boston's victory on Wednesday night.

STARS

Kyrie Irving: Boston struggled early on to score the ball, and it was the play of Kyrie Irving that kept them afloat. He would finish the night with 17 points on 6-for-8 shooting with nine points coming in the first quarter. He also had seven assists and six rebounds.

Jaylen Brown: Wednesday night was a good start for Brown to get his scoring game back on track. He was attacking the rim repeatedly and was rewarded with lay-ups that seemed to open things up for him on the perimeter. For the game, he had 18 points and six rebounds with three assists.

STUDS

Jayson Tatum: He didn’t shoot the ball particularly well (5-for-14), but Tatum was engaged all game and delivered offensively during Boston’s second-quarter surge which put the Celtics in firm control of the game. He would finish with 14 points and six rebounds.

Jabari Parker: The Chicago native was damn near unstoppable in the first quarter and then … poof! After scoring 14 points in the first quarter, Parker did not score another point all game.

Zach LaVine: The Celtics did a nice job defensively against LaVine. A top-10 scorer in the NBA this season, LaVine was limited to just 10 points on 3-for-11 shooting from the field to go with nine rebounds and four assists.

Gordon Hayward: The shot took a while to start falling, but Hayward’s defense and play-making was plenty good for most of the night. He would finish with 11 points to go with four rebounds and four assists.

DUDS

Celtics’ slow start: As predictable as the outcome was on Wednesday night, the same could be said for Boston beginning the game playing from behind. The Bulls are among the back-of-the-pack clubs in the East, so a slow start against them won’t hurt you too much. But for them to build off Wednesday’s victory, they have to be better at the beginning of games.

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