The Celtics outlasted the Chicago Bulls in a barnburner on Friday night.

Have they done enough to secure their ticket to the NBA Cup quarterfinals? That will only be decided in a few days.

Boston’s 138-129 win at the United Center kept Joe Mazzulla’s club alive in the NBA’s regular-season tournament. The Celtics can’t win their group – Atlanta did so with their win over Cleveland earlier in the day – but can clinch the Eastern Conference wild-card spot if they finish with the best point differential of the three second-place teams.

Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 35 points and 14 rebounds in the win, but the star of the night was reserve guard Payton Pritchard, who broke out in the fourth quarter to help Boston pull away.

Kristaps Porzingis also showed strong numbers (21 points on 7 of 11 shooting, eight rebounds) in his second game after offseason leg surgery. Jaylen Brown scored 21 points – including a Dunk of the Year candidate with eight minutes left – and Jrue Holiday came on late and finished with 11 points and eight rebounds.

The Celtics had their full roster available for the first time this season, but played the final 20 minutes without starter Derrick White, who left with what the team called a right foot injury. White, an All-Star candidate in 19 games, was productive before the injury, shooting 6 of 10 from the floor and 4 of 8 from three and finishing the game with 16 points, six rebounds, four assists, one steal and no turnovers 24 minutes.

His absence opened the floor for Pritchard, and the Sixth Man of the Year favorite delivered, scoring 19 of his season-high 29 points in the fourth quarter.

Pritchard did not leave the field after White’s early exit and went 9-for-12 from the field from that point on. He also recorded one steal, one assist and seven rebounds, including four on offense.

“He’s a complete player,” Mazzulla told reporters after the game. “I know it sounds strange, but he’s one of the best three-level scorers I’ve ever seen, especially because of his size, and he’s just a high-level player.”

Nikola Vucevic (32 points) and Zach LaVine (29 points) provided a balanced Bulls offense that tested the Celtics in a way few opponents have. Chicago’s 129 points were the most points Boston has allowed in a regulation game this season.

However, the Bulls’ defense isn’t nearly as impressive, and they had trouble slowing down the high-scoring C’s. Boston hit nine 3-pointers in a 39-point first quarter, gaining its first double-digit lead in less than seven minutes.

The Celtics’ starters shot a combined 8 of 12 from three games in the first frame, with Porzingis, White, Brown and Tatum all contributing at least seven points. Brown hit his first three triples for the second time in three games.

However, Chicago boasts a fast and impressive offense of its own (first in the NBA in pace, second to Boston in three-pointers made per game) and controlled the game for most of the second quarter. The Bulls scored 25 of the first 32 points in the quarter, erasing the Celtics’ 13-point lead and building their own nine-point cushion.

The momentum then swung back toward Boston, which went on a 14-0 run and made eight of its final nine shots before halftime. But thanks to Vucevic, both teams ended the half tied at 67-67. The smooth Bulls big man drained three-pointers on Chicago’s final four possessions of the first half and scored 16 points in 93 seconds.

The Celtics and Bulls took completely different paths at halftime. While Tatum, Brown, Porzingis and White combined to score all but five of Boston’s first-half points, Chicago played against 11 different players and got at least one basket from each of them.

More goals from Vucevic helped Chicago take an eight-point lead early in the third quarter. The Celtics responded with a 7-0 run after a timeout by Mazzulla, and a foot-on-the-line two by Pritchard put Boston back in the lead at 86-85. Tatum scored 13 points in the quarter, but the Bulls had an answer for each one. The teams entered the fourth quarter with a score of 96:96.

Brown also added a thunderous, eye-catching dunk over Jalen Smith, and Porzingis drilled a three-pointer from 30 feet away – his first since the first minute of the game. Sam Hauser scored his only three points of the night on a mismatch and a timeout as time expired.

“It’s the points difference, so you want to maximize it as much as possible,” Mazzulla told reporters. “But I like it because this tournament and the point difference removes any unwritten rules that you should or should not follow. In a normal situation, you wouldn’t do this (taking a six-second timeout in the final seconds), but in this situation you can see a need and design a play to try to get better at the situation.

“The boys did a good job and we tried to increase the point difference as much as possible.”

Those points could prove crucial on Tuesday night when the idle Celtics must exhaust the final round of group play to find out whether their plus-23 point lead was enough to catapult them into the knockout rounds of the NBA Cup .

Games between the New York Knicks (+15) and Orlando Magic (+60) as well as the Milwaukee Bucks (+29) and Detroit Pistons (+28) will decide the winners of the other two Eastern Conference groups. To advance, the Celtics must have a better point differential than the losers of these two games.

Meanwhile, the Celtics travel to Cleveland on Sunday for a non-Cup matchup (but still pretty exciting) against the Cavaliers. The 16-3 C’s are just a half game behind the 17-3 Cavs and are in first place in the East standings. Their first meeting was a thriller: Boston won 120-117 at TD Garden on November 19th.

Sunday’s game is the start of a busy week for the Celtics, who also play Monday, Wednesday, next Friday and next Saturday.

Originally published: November 29, 2024 at 10:49 pm EST