BY: RAPHAEL JOSEPH MARTINEZ – SPORTS ON AIR USA CORRESPONDENT
MANILA — The Chicago Bulls rolled the red carpet for NBA Cup pool play at the United Center on Friday night.
And it turned out to be a Boston 3 party as the Celtics nailed 23 triples on the way to a 138-129 victory in front of a stout crowd of 19,798 on a cold, wintry Chicago evening.
Jayson Tatum led all scorers with 35 and 14 rebounds. His sidekick, Jaylen Brown, finished with 21 points and 4 assists. Derrick White added 16 and 8 boards. But it was Payton Pritchard who stoled the show with a sizzling 29 points off the bench including 19 in the pivotal fourth quarter.
Led by Nikola Vuceivic’s season-high 32 points and 11 rebounds, the Bulls shot a high 51.1 percent from the field which allowed them to heep pace with the Celtics at 96-96 after three quarters of play.
But Boston, with Pritchard leading the charge, just had more ammunition in the homestretch.
Zach Lavine starred for Chicago with 29 points on 11-of-22 shooting. Ayo Dosunmu and Coby White combined for 24.The team effort made LaVine enthused moving forward.
“I think we played them well. We made some mistakes. They have some really good players on their team. I think there were a couple of runs where they hit some threes and we might have had some turnovers or missed shots, but I think we played really good — towards our identity,” LaVine told the Chicago Sun-Times.
The 16-3 improved to 16-3, just a half-game behind the Cleveland Cavaliers for the best overall record in the NBA. The Bulls, meanwhile, plummeted to 8-3.
