Celtics prep for highly-anticipated match against Warriors with victory over Bulls

Before we get to Friday and the arrival of the Golden State Globetrotters, with Stephen Curry playing Curly Neal and Draymond Green as Geese Ausbie, there was an Eastern Conference slugfest with the Chicago Bulls that awaited the Celtics on Wednesday night at TD Garden.

It took awhile but the Celtics began to adjust to the Bulls’ physicality, and Stevens shortened his bench, used David Lee extensively despite him missing the last two games with a bruised heel, and allowed Evan Turner to join Thomas in running the offense. In that game Pau Gasol had 22 points and 10 rebounds and overall he has been the Bulls’ best player so far this season as he has a PER of 21.2 while averaging 14.8 points 10.8 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game.

RAPTORS 97, SPURS 94: In Toronto, DeMar DeRozan scored 28 points and Kyle Lowry added 19 as Toronto snapped San Antonio’s four-game winning streak and just its third loss in the last 18 games.

“I don’t feel flawless but I’ll give it a go”, he said.

The Bulls attacked behind a 36-point performance from Jimmy Butler, who has emerged as the offensive star while everyone waits for Derrick Rose to return to form, and the Celtics countered with a balanced attack.

Lee’s slam capped a 10-0 run that put the Celtics on top by double digits, at 87-77, with 6:55 left in the game. “We played a pretty good game, I guess”.

The Celtics are a very deep team, particularly in the frontcourt, so there were questions about how Stevens would split up the minutes there but one guy who has earned minutes is Jared Sullinger. The change that will likely happen is Taj Gibson replacing Nikola Mirotic in the starting lineup.

Thomas was 9 of 13 from the floor and hit all four 3-point attempts to shoot better than 50 percent for the second time in three games Monday, when he scored all but three of his 22 points in the first half.

Boston used an 8-0 run to go ahead in the second quarter, but back came the Bulls.

But Thomas scored the next five points, the final three coming on a three-point play after he was fouled on a spinning drive down the lane with 2:23 to play.

Thompson was injured in the fourth quarter Tuesday after scoring a season-high 39 points. G R.J. Hunter was out with a hip flexor.

It was Gasol’s 11th this season.

Sullinger had a simple way to look at Golden State.

“I don’t [enjoy these types of games], honestly”, Thomas said. The Celtics’ back court is where their defense is strongest and they need to take advantage of a player who will take ill advised shots and will create opportunities for the Celtics to get steals and play in transition. “We keep talking about it, yadda, yadda, yadda, but eventually we’re going to have to fix it or we’re going to keep finding ourselves on the losing end of ball games”. “I said, ‘Why not?’ Last (season) we never had any national TV games; this (season) I just wanted to show ESPN we appreciate it. We have highlights here”.