The Celtics returned home following a five-game road trip to beat the Chicago Bulls 115-101 Monday night at TD Garden for their fourth consecutive victory.
Anfernee Simons led all scorers with a season-high 27 points on 9-of-16 from the field, including 8-of-14 from 3-point range. The seven-year veteran, who was traded to Boston in the summer for Jrue Holiday and is averaging 13.5 points per contest this season, scored his points off the bench and all in the second half.
"I feel like I've grown so much in a lot of areas, just mentally -- how to approach each and every game, attention to detail, and the intensity that we play with each and every night," Simons said in his postgame presser. "That's the standard that's been set."
Payton Pritchard had 21 points, six rebounds and five assists, while Jaylen Brown struggled to reach just 14 points on 6-of-24 from the floor to go along with eight rebounds -- after coming off a career-tying 50-point performance against the Los Angeles Clippers Saturday night in Boston's road trip finale.
Neemias Queta added a double-double of 13 points, 13 rebounds to help the Celtics improve to 23-12 on the season and grab sole possession of second place in the Eastern Conference, passing the New York Knicks (23-13) in the standings.
Matas Buzelis scored 26 points on 9-of-12 shooting, while Nikola Vucevic recorded 15 points, 15 rebounds and Ayo Dosunmu also chipped in 15 points off the bench for the Bulls -- who dropped to 17-19 and have lost two-straight.
Chicago was held to only 33 points at the break and trailed by as many as 23, before scoring 34 in the third quarter alone. The Celtics took a 85-67 advantage into the final frame and were never in any real danger of blowing their double-digit lead.
A Vucevic 3-pointer cut the Bulls' deficit down to 106-96 with 3:34 left to play, before Boston used a 11-5 run the rest of the way to stop the visiting team for good -- nearly hold them to under 100 points until the 1:10 mark -- making it not the most prettiest of wins.
"They didn't look very good out there, but they played hard," Mazzulla said in his postgame comments. "I was not pleased with how they looked, but I was pleased with how they tried, how they played, and how they competed. But they looked relatively tired."
The Celtics will host the shorthanded Denver Nuggets (24-12) Wednesday night, as ESPN has the tip-off at 7:00 pm ET.
Boston was 42-of-104 from the field, including 20-of-52 (38%) from deep, while the Bulls hit 38-of-86 from the floor and 16-of-46 (35%) from behind the arc. The Celtics won the rebound battle 54-45, but were outscored in the paint 36-34, while only committing eight turnovers to Chicago's 13.
Joel Pavón
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