After scoring 33 points in the first quarter, the Boston Celtics played catch-up all night against the Chicago Bulls, but were unable to pull off the comeback, losing the trap game 126-116.
Kyrie Irving scored 37 points on 14 of 24 shooting (58.3 percent) to go with his 10 assists and Al Horford scored an efficient 19 points (9 for 15, 60 percent) but the defense could not stop Zach LaVine and Lauri Markkanen. According to NBC Sports Boston’s Mike Gorman, the tandem was the first pair of Bulls to each score 35 or more in a game since Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. LaVine finished with 42 shooting 58.6 percent from the floor (17 for 29) and 45.5 percent from deep (5 for 11) and Markkanen had 35, going 12 for 20 (60 percent), 3 for 7 from three (42.9).
This also marked the first time the Celtics allowed a pair of teammates to score 40 and 30 points since 2005, according to Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston.
This marks the seventh time all season the Celtics have lost back-to-back games, the second time in the month of February. Of those seven times, the Celtics have lost three in a row on three occasions, something they hope to avoid in Toronto against the Raptors on Tuesday.
