Motivated Celtics rip Bulls; Paul leads Clippers past Jazz

CHICAGO — Al Horford had 18 points and eight rebounds, Isaiah Thomas scored 16 points, and topseeded Boston beat Chicago 104-87 on Friday night after dropping the first two games of its opening-round series at home.

The Celtics got a recorded message from Kevin Garnett before the game. Thomas, still grieving the death of his sister, had a few things to say, too.

“To me personally, it was everything,” Jae Crowder said. “It was just a little motivation speech. (Garnett) said we looked like a team that wasn’t having fun. We looked like a team that (wasn’t) soaking in the moment. We just needed to play for one another, and play for the moment which is at hand being in the playoffs and have fun with it. He basically said put a little more KG into it.”

Dwyane Wade scored 18 points for Chicago. Jimmy Butler had 14 points on 7-of-21 shooting, and the offense simply didn’t click the way it had been, with Rajon Rondo out indefinitely with a broken right thumb.

“We’re not going to put this all on missing Rondo because he might not show up,” Wade said. “It sounds like he’s going to be out for a while. We need to come out as a team and figure out how to be better.”

Thomas rejoined the team after spending time with his family in Tacoma, Wash. He scored eight points in the third quarter, helping Boston regain control, and finished with nine assists in the game.

“We weren’t coming here hoping to get a win,” Bradley said. “We knew we were coming here to win both games.” CLIPPERS 111, JAZZ 106

Chris Paul scored 34 points, and Los Angeles rallied for a victory over host Utah to take a 2-1 lead in the first-round playoff series.

Utah led most of the game before Paul took over in the fourth quarter and powered a 15-0 run that gave Los Angeles a 103-96 lead with 2:09 remaining.

The win negated a spectacular night from Gordon Hayward, who scored a career-high 40 points. But Paul simply dominated the fourth quarter, scoring nine straight himself during the run.