Pritchard Erupts for 30 as Boston Buries Chicago 125-111
Payton Pritchard dropped 30 points and Boston closed the first quarter on a 26-2 run to make this one a formality before halftime. The Celtics beat the Bulls 125-111, and the story of the night was a Boston offense that looked genuinely unstoppable once it found its rhythm.
The game opened with genuine chaos. Chicago actually led 9-6 midway through the first quarter — Caleb Wilson dunking, Matas Buzelis floating and finishing — and for a moment it looked like the Bulls had come to compete. The biggest win-probability swing of the night came early: Wilson's 24-foot three-pointer off a Norman Powell assist at 11:30 of the first moved Boston's home win probability from 88% to 85%, the closest Chicago would get to rattling the Celtics all night. Then Boston flipped a switch. Jayson Tatum hit a 25-foot step-back three, Paul George threw down a driving dunk, and the Celtics reeled off basket after basket while Chicago went scoreless for nearly six minutes. By the time Payton Pritchard buried a 25-foot three with under two minutes left in the first, Boston led 38-20. Pritchard wasn't done — he added a running layup and a free throw in the final 90 seconds to push the quarter lead to 44-22. That margin, built almost entirely in one quarter, was the game.
Tatum finished with 26 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists, and appears to have been the engine that kept Boston's offense humming even when Pritchard wasn't the one scoring. Paul George was quietly excellent — 18 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals — and his playmaking threaded through nearly every Boston run in that first quarter. For Chicago, Wilson's 23 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 blocks were a legitimate bright spot, and Buzelis added 14 points and 5 rebounds. Norman Powell chipped in 16 for the Bulls. But the Bulls were without Patrick Williams and Mike Conley, both listed as DNPs by coach's decision, and it's fair to wonder whether a healthier roster changes the texture of this game, even if the outcome looks inevitable given how Boston performed.
The final was 125-111, but it wasn't that close. Boston's 44-22 first-quarter advantage set a tone Chicago never recovered from, and Pritchard's 30-point night off what appeared to be a reserve role looks like the kind of performance that will generate real conversation. The Celtics were efficient, deep, and relentless in that first-quarter stretch — the kind of team that punishes you the moment you give them an inch. Chicago's young pieces showed fight, but Boston looked like a team that knows exactly what it is.