No Bull, Celtics win by 56
Theis fills in, sparks superlative blowout
CHICAGO — Faced with a Celtics team that continues to score at a pop-a-shot rate, Jim Boylan looked for inspiration to the Chicago Blackhawks locker room across the hallway. Boylan, in only his third game coaching the young Bulls, pulled all five starters at once in the midst of a game-opening 17-0 Celtics run. And when the Celtics boosted their 64-43 halftime lead with the first six points of the third quarter, he did it again, sending a shift of five subs over the boards. Though not always, there are times when small ball suits the Celtics quite well. Last night they crushed the stripped-down Bulls 133-77, their largest margin of victory since 1962 and the biggest loss in Chicago’s franchise history. With Lauri Markkanen playing in only his second game since returning from injury, and Bobby Portis and Kris Dunn still inactive, the Bulls weren’t exactly in a position to make the Celtics pay for their lack of size. But with Al Horford (knee), Aron Baynes (ankle) and Robert Williams (birth of a daughter) all unavailable — and Guerschon Yabusele helped off the floor in the fourth after turning his right ankle in the fourth quarter — the Celtics did quite nicely with Daniel Theis as their emergency center. The big German rolled and dunked his way to a career-high 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting, to go along with 18 from Jayson Tatum, 12 from Marcus Morris, and double-figure bench contributions from Jaylen Brown (17) and Terry Rozier (13). The Celts shot a filthy 51.2 percent (22-of-43) on 3-pointers. Their 64-43 halftime lead was built on 55.6 percent (10for-18) 3-point shooting. Four players had already reached double figures, including Tatum (10), Morris (12), Theis (10) and Rozier (10). Zach LaVine, who seemed to take the early benching of the Bulls starters personally after the team’s 0-for-11 start, had 11 points. The Celtics pushed their lead all the way out to 34 points (87-53) before the end of the third quarter, and carried a 93-60 lead into the fourth.