Celtics vs. Bulls: Score, Highlights and Reaction from 2016 Regular Season
The new-look Chicago Bulls opened their season with a 105-99 victory at home against the Boston Celtics on Thursday.
Dwyane Wade had a strong game in his Bulls debut, scoring 22 points, grabbing six rebounds and dishing out five assists.
Wade shared a hug with his mom after the win, as the NBA's official Twitter account shared:
Jimmy Butler led the team in scoring with 24 points. Although Rajon Rondo scored only four points on 1-of-9 shooting, he had six rebounds and nine assists.
Isaiah Thomas led all scorers with 25 points. Al Horford was still getting adjusted to the Celtics offense, dropping 11 points in an underwhelming offensive performance for the second night in a row.
The Bulls came out firing to begin the game. They never trailed in the first half, scoring 57 points on 41.3 percent shooting as a team. Chicago led by as many as 15 points through the first two quarters and took a 57-49 advantage into halftime.
The hot perimeter shooting by Wade and Butler was one of the biggest reasons behind the Bulls' strong start. Butler missed all five of his two-point field-goal attempts but was 3-of-3 from beyond the arc. After making only seven threes last season, Wade was 3-of-4 from three-point range in the first half Thursday.
The 34-year-old showed impressive range:
The Chicago Tribune's K.C. Johnson noted Wade has been trying to change his offensive game:
SB Nation's Ricky O'Donnell thought the 12-time All-Star should've altered his style long ago:
The Bulls also did a great job of crashing the boards, picking up 11 offensive rebounds, compared to one for the Celtics.
Taj Gibson had six rebounds, two of which were on the offensive glass. In addition to his strong rebounding, Gibson held Horford in check, with the Celtics' marquee free-agent signing scoring five first-half points.
NBA.com's Steve Aschburner noted Horford had better luck when Gibson headed for the bench:
The Bulls cooled off early in the third quarter, which allowed the Celtics to take their first lead of the game. Thomas connected on a transition three at the 4:22 mark to put Boston ahead 69-68.
The NBA shared a replay of Thomas' shot:
The Celtics couldn't string enough defensive stops together to get ahead for a prolonged stretch of time, though. Boston remained within striking distance and trailed 79-73 at the end of the third quarter.
The Bulls appeared to have the game in hand after going ahead by 14 points with a little over seven minutes left. The Celtics answered with an 11-0 run to trim the deficit to 95-92 following a difficult layup by Thomas.
The Athletic's Stephen Noh pointed out that Chicago struggled mightily in the fourth quarter a year ago:
The Celtics had two opportunities to take the lead late in the game. With Boston down 99-97, Horford's three-point attempt from the right corner missed the mark with 1:09 remaining. With 43 seconds left, Celtics rookie Jaylen Brown committed a traveling violation to turn the ball over with Boston trailing 101-99.
On the other end of the court, Wade delivered a dagger with a step-back three-pointer.
NBA on TNT shared a second look at the critical shot:
NBA.com's John Schuhmann was befuddled by Wade's newfound perimeter game:
One game doesn't answer all of the questions surrounding the Bulls, but Chicago's performance was encouraging. Butler and Wade shared the load, and Nikola Mirotic provided a big impact off the bench, scoring 15 points.
Whether or not the Butler-Wade-Rondo triumvirate works over the long haul remains to be seen. The trio combined to shoot 9-of-14 from three-point range Thursday, but the three starters may not be able to repeat that on most nights.
Chicago can build on Thursday's win when it plays the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night.
Celtics head coach Brad Stevens will want to see better work from his team on the defensive glass. Boston allowed 18 offensive rebounds against the Bulls after surrendering 15 offensive boards to the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday.
The Celtics ranked sixth in rebounding last year with 44.9 per game, and they should be even stronger in that category after adding Horford.
Boston will get a much-needed night off before it hits the hardwood again. The team will stay on the road to play the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday night. After that, the Celtics have a back-to-back against the Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers next Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
Postgame Reaction
Wade spoke about how special it was to suit up for the Bulls, per the Chicago Tribune's Chris Kuc:
"I've been waiting on that moment for a long time. And especially for my family, (too), who were here and they've been waiting on it probably just as long.
I took that moment just to thank God for giving me this opportunity to do these things, to have this career I have and to be able to make a decision on my own and put myself in a position where I can live a dream now.
"
Gibson thinks the Bulls have a nice balance of veteran leadership and younger players on the roster who can combine to make the team work hard for a playoff spot, per the Chicago Sun-Times' Joe Cowley.
"We have a lot of guys that have tasted success, and we got a lot of young guys that want to taste that success. Point blank, period," Gibson said. "We're playing with a lot of guys that are unselfish and everybody is doing what they've got to do."
Stevens showed a lot of faith in Brown by keeping the rookie on the court late in the game. While Brown's mistake proved costly, Stevens liked what he saw from the No. 3 overall pick.
"[Brown] was playing pretty well and I thought we were better off playing small," he said, according to A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com. "I wanted to keep Jaylen in there. I thought he did a lot of good things tonight. Obviously that play didn't go his way."
