Chicago Bulls @ Boston Celtics
Monday, January 5, 2026 at 7:30 PM ET
TD Garden, Boston, MA | Game ID: 22500503
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
BOS 31 23 31 30 115CHI 14 19 34 34 101
ESPN UpdateESPN Update
Simons scores 27 points, Pritchard adds 21 as Celtics cruise past Bulls 115-101
BOSTON -- — Anfernee Simons scored 27 points, Payton Pritchard had 21 and the Boston Celtics held the Chicago Bulls to 33 points in the opening half of a 115-101 victory on Monday night.
Neemias Queta added 13 points and 13 rebounds for Boston, which won its fourth straight game and for the eighth time in nine games.
Jaylen Brown was held to 14 points on 6-of-24 shooting, one game after tying his career-high with 50 points in a victory at the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday.
Matas Buzelis scored 26 to lead the Bulls, who were nearly held under 100 points in their second straight loss after falling at home against Charlotte on Saturday.
The Celtics led by 21 points at halftime and weren’t threatened by the cold-shooting Bulls until a modest charge in the closing five minutes. Chicago was missing leading leading scorer, Josh Giddey , (hamstring).
The Bulls cut it to 106-96 on Nikola Vucevic’s 3-pointer with 3:34 to play. Chicago didn’t reach the 100-point mark until just over a minute left.
Boston led by 17 at the end of one quarter and despite shooting only 32.7% late in the second quarter pushed its advantage to 49-27 on Brown’s short jumper in the lane.
Pritchard hit a fadeaway 3 at the buzzer, making it 54-33 at halftime.
The Bulls were threatening a team-record low points for a half (23, set against Miami on April 10, 1999) before Jevon Carter hit a pair of late 3s. Chicago missed 20 of its first 23 attempts from beyond the arc. Boston wasn’t much better, making only 5 of its first 19.
It was the fewest points the Celtics had allowed in a first half this season.
Up next Bulls: At Detroit on Wednesday.
Celtics: Host Denver on Wednesday in the second of a four-game homestand.
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Who
Who is who
the initials in the Players column
BOSAS A. Simons
BS B. Scheierman
DW D. White
GO Gonzalez
HG H. González
JB J. Brown
JW J. Walsh
LG L. Garza
NQ N. Queta
PP P. Pritchard
SH S. Hauser
CHIAD A. Dosunmu
CW C. White
DT D. Terry
IO I. Okoro
JC J. Carter
JP J. Phillips
KH K. Huerter
LO L. Olbrich
MB M. Buzelis
NV N. Vučević
PW P. Williams
TJ T. Jones
VU Vucevic
BOS/CHI the team itself, not a player
-- the feed named nobody
What
What happened
the codes in the Events column
M2 / M3 made 2 / made 3
X2 / X3 missed 2 / missed 3
FT / X1 free throw made / missed
AST assist
OR / DR offensive / defensive rebound
STL steal
BLK block
TO turnover
FL foul
OF offensive foul — ends the possession
VIOL violation
JUMP jump ball
TM timeout
IR instant replay
HE heave at the buzzer, filed to the team
Where
Where a shot came from
the middle field of M3.LW.25
RM at the rim inside 4 ft
RC right corner
RW right wing
SO straight on
LW left wing
LC left corner
M3.LW.25 made 3, left wing, 25 ft
X2.RM.01 missed 2, at the rim, 1 ft
When
When it happened
the Offset column
one number per event, in the Events order:
whole seconds from the start of the
possession to that event
Events FL X3.RC.23 OR M2.RM.01
Offset 0 18 22 24
the foul opens the possession at 0s;
the putback ends it at 24s, which is
the possession's own Dur