– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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BOSTON — It surely was no surprise that the Boston Celtics’ stars were tired: whether metaphorically after shooting the lights out to end their recently wrapped-up road trip, or physically after flying back to Beantown immediately proceeding the most time spent away from home all season to play a game just 48 hours later. Anfernee Simons quickly emulated his teammates’ poor shooting touch upon entering the game on Monday night but he soon gained his touch as the rest of the team also found their form to continue the winning ways.
Simons drilled eight three-pointers on his way to 27 points as the Celtics had little trouble in dispatching the Chicago Bulls 115-101 inside TD Garden to start a four-game homestand. Led by Simons, the Celtics’ bench scored 48 points, while one-time reserve Payton Pritchard led all Boston starters with 21 points.
Though he missed all three of his shots in the first half, Simons caught fire in the second, making three 3-pointers on his way to 12 points in the period. The fourth quarter saw him scorch the nets, making 5-of-7 shots — all from beyond the arc — in helping the Celtics keep the Bulls at bay despite Chicago shooting 61 percent from the field in the game’s final 12 minutes.
“I know I can come in and be aggressive and try to score the ball. It’s been fun implementing myself into this culture that’s been set and the expectations that have been set already as well, too,” Simons said. “I feel like I’ve grown so much in a lot of areas, just mentally and how to approach each game. Just the attention to detail and the intensity that we play each and every night. That’s the standard that’s been set.”
The pick-me-up from Boston’s reserves was needed, as Jaylen Brown and Derrick White combined to go 9-for-39 in the contest, including misses on 14 of their 16 threes. Brown, who was coming off a 50-point outing in Boston’s win over the Los Angeles Clippers to end the road trip on Saturday night, went just 6-for-24 on Monday, yet the Celtics held a commanding 21-point lead at halftime (54-33) thanks to 14 offensive rebounds leading to 14 second-chance points.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Monday evening’s game, with photos taken by ALOST photo editor Erica Denhoff. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 34 pictures in total.
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