BOSTON — Zach LaVine sent a message Thursday night against the Boston Celtics. And in case teams throughout the NBA weren’t already listening, he made the case for himself at full volume.
For four quarters, LaVine confused and overwhelmed the reigning champions, slicing to the rim and lacing long-range 3-pointers and sneaking passes into the paint. LaVine scored 36 points in a 117-108 win, cementing his position as one of the top trade prospects in the league — contract be damned.
LaVine knew this was coming. At the end of practice Wednesday, he asked a few teammates to stay behind to run one-on-one drills, dancing around and shouldering through players to sharpen his finishing touch for the upcoming offensive battle.
Forty-point games haven’t been an expectation for LaVine this season. And that still wasn’t the necessity Thursday. The Bulls offense is designed to spread the ball more evenly, creating a lower expectation for LaVine’s relative output even as teamwide scoring soars.
But LaVine knew when to pick his team up, ripping off 13 points in the second quarter to carry the offense through to halftime without derailing the game plan.
“I think I’m picking my spots well this year,” LaVine said. “At the end of that second quarter, I went at a couple matchups and it felt good. We ended up getting back to our identity in the third quarter, but I’ll keep picking my spots when we need it.”
Here are four takeaways from the win.
1. The Bulls beat the Celtics at their own game
When it’s time to play the best 3-point shooting team in the league, it’s not always wise to fight fire with fire. But the Bulls didn’t listen to that wisdom. Instead, they took 52 shots from behind the arc for the fourth time in the last five games. And it worked.
The Bulls outscored the Celtics 57-42 from 3-point range, making five more than the hosts despite taking four fewer shots. LaVine led the team with six 3s on 11 attempts, but the hot shooting was holistic for the Bulls.
Patrick Williams went 4-for-9 from behind the arc, Nikola Vučević was 2-for-3 and Ayo Dosunmu 3-for-5. Only two players — Jalen Smith and Matas Buzelis — didn’t make a 3-pointer in the win.
2. The Celtics started a squabble
It was, undeniably, an off night for the reigning champs. Beyond shooting only 25% (14-for-56) from 3-point range, their composure began to waver in the second half — and exploded completely in the fourth quarter.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla earned a technical foul for storming onto the court to contest a jump-ball call. LaVine sank a free throw, then returned for a jump ball, only to traipse back down the court again when Jaylen Brown drew another technical foul. After making both free throws — and once the Bulls reclaimed possession when the jump ball went out of bounds — LaVine took the ball back up the court and nailed a 3-pointer.
That five-point swing gave the Bulls an eight-point advantage with 5 minutes, 11 seconds remaining. And it drained the Celtics of any remaining swagger as they entered a clutch-game situation. Jayson Tatum picked up the third and final technical foul barely two minutes later as the Celtics collapsed into an exasperated mess.
Two assistant coaches were forced to drag Mazzulla to the locker room after the game as he shouted down referee Tony Brothers. And the Celtics remained unapologetically disgruntled well after the final buzzer.
“I think it’s bulls—,” Brown said in his postgame news conference.
Tatum led the Celtics with 31 points, Kristaps Porziņģis added 20 and Brown 19.
3. Fourth-quarter effort
In the first half, the Bulls didn’t meet the Celtics’ physical challenge. It’s easy to fixate on the talent and skill of the Celtics, but a bulk of their success is anchored on gritty defense and an unyielding desire to win 50-50 balls. At the start of the game, this ethos overwhelmed the Bulls. But that changed in the second half — and completely reversed in the fourth quarter.
The Bulls shut off the offensive boards to close the game, allowing only one Celtics offensive rebound (and zero second-chance points) until the final 15 seconds of garbage time. And they muscled their way into extra opportunities, grabbing four offensive boards to extend plays and create five second-chance points.
Ayo Dosunmu fueled a crucial stretch at the start of the fourth without LaVine, Vučević, Lonzo Ball or Coby White on the court, scoring nine points on 4-for-5 shooting in the final frame — and putting Brown on skates with a nasty behind-the-back move. Dosunmu finished with 17 points.
And Julian Phillips and Talen Horton-Tucker provided a boost in the bridge unit, combining for eight points and three rebounds in the fourth. The Bulls outscored the hosts 35-22 in the quarter.
4. A third consecutive win
The win gave the Bulls a three-game winning streak — their longest of the season. It was their first victory in the series in the last six meetings. And it pulled the Bulls (13-15) within two games of .500 as they climbed to eighth in the Eastern Conference standings.
For the Bulls — who ostensibly are attempting to walk the line of tanking to preserve a top-10 protected pick — this much winning isn’t an automatic positive. But after the win, LaVine made it clear that a tank job isn’t in the plans for any player on the roster.
“Players and coaches never tank,” LaVine said. “That’s just not going to happen. We’re a good team. We’re better than what people predicted us to be.”
