BOSTON — It was hard to know exactly what to expect heading into Friday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls with the Celtics essentially locked into the No. 2 seed in the East and resting starters Al Horford and Jayson Tatum.
Even a creative mind would not have expected it to be a night of Greg Monroe, Jabari Bird and Jonathan Gibson.
Monroe put up a triple-double with 19 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, Bird tripled his previous career points total with [...]
BOSTON — It was hard to know exactly what to expect heading into Friday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls with the Celtics essentially locked into the No. 2 seed in the East and resting starters Al Horford and Jayson Tatum.
Even a creative mind would not have expected it to be a night of Greg Monroe, Jabari Bird and Jonathan Gibson.
Monroe put up a triple-double with 19 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, Bird tripled his previous career points total with 15, and Gibson hit his first three 3-pointers on his way to nine points as the Celtics held off the Bulls for a 111-104 victory.
Jaylen Brown was Boston’s big star of the night as he struck for 32 points – with his 3-pointer with 1:42 to play making it a 107-98 game.
Brown’s seventh 3-pointer of the night on 10 attempts made it a 110-100 game with 36.3 seconds to go, capping the career performance.
Guerschon Yabusele’s free throw with 25.4 seconds to play, and ensuing rebound, put the finishing touch on the surprisingly entertaining game considering its utter lack of consequence.
While the mixing and matching had the feel of an exhibition game, it could have provided some important information for Celtics coach Brad Stevens as he looks to get a team ready for the playoffs without Gordon Hayward, Kyrie Irving, Marcus Smart and Daniel Theis.
Down three at the half, the Celtics went up four early in the third on a Brown 3-pointer with 8:20 left in the quarter. It was within a two-possession game the rest of the third with the spice of the quarter coming in the final two minutes as Marcus Morris and Bobby Portis were ejected after twice bumping and jawing at each other on the same inbounds play.
Monroe ran off seven straight points amid the contentiousness, with his three-point play putting Boston up 79-74 with 39.3 seconds left in the third, before the Celtics hit the fourth up three.
Gibson, who earlier in the day signed a 10-day contract with the Celtics after playing the winter in the Chinese Basketball Association, drained 3-pointers on his first two shots as the Celtics went up 89-86 with 8:53 left in the fourth.
Gibson then hit Semi Ojeleye for a 3-pointer and Gibson hit a third 3-pointer for a 95-90 lead with 7:23 to play.
Monroe’s drive to the basket made it a nine-point game with 5:09 to play. He then got his triple-double when he found Brown for a corner 3-pointer with three minutes to play.
The Bulls closed the gap to 102-98 with 2:49 to play when Bird swatted away a shot at a two-point game and Ojeleye drove for a six-point game before Brown's daggers.
The first half was all about the unexpected unleashing of Bird upon the Boston sports landscape.
The University of California rookie, who spent most of the season with the Maine Red Claws of the G-League, entered the night with five points in 37 career minutes.
But Bird was Boston’s go-to scorer for stretches of the half as he knocked down 6-of-8 shots for 13 points in 12 minutes off the bench.
Brown scored 15 in the half on 6-of-10 shooting as the Celtics rallied from down 11 points midway through the second quarter two within three at the half on a buzzer-beater from Morris.