BOSTON (AP) \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
Neemias Queta added 13 points and 13 rebounds for Boston, which won its fourth straight game and for the eighth time in nine games.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/a><\/p>\n 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.<\/a><\/p>\n The Celtics led by 21 points at halftime and weren\u2019t threatened by the cold-shooting Bulls until a modest charge in the closing five minutes. Chicago was missing leading leading scorer, Josh Giddey, (hamstring).<\/p>\n The Bulls cut it to 106-96 on Nikola Vucevic\u2019s 3-pointer with 3:34 to play. Chicago didn\u2019t reach the 100-point mark until just over a minute left.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n 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\u2019s short jumper in the lane.<\/p>\n Pritchard hit a fadeaway 3 at the buzzer, making it 54-33 at halftime.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t much better, making only 5 of its first 19.<\/p>\n It was the fewest points the Celtics had allowed in a first half this season.<\/p>\n Download the FREE Boston 25 News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW<\/a><\/p>\n