Bulls hand Celtics first loss of season behind strong outings from DeRozan, Vučević

The Chicago Bulls have stormed past the Boston Celtics 120-102 at the United Center to hand them their first loss of the season behind strong outings from veterans DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vučević.

DeRozan finished with a team-high 25 points, five rebounds and five assists on 10-of-17 from the field whilst Vučević had 18 points, 23 rebounds and five assists, joining Joakim Noah and Charles Oakley as the only players in franchise history to reach those marks.

They were not alone, however; Ayo Dosunmu poured in 22 points of his own hitting on nine of his 10 field goal attempts and all four of his three-point attempts whilst Zach LaVine added 19 points.

In 18 minutes off the bench, Alex Caruso had seven points, four assists, three rebounds and two blocks whilst finishing a game-high plus-29.

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The Bulls dug themselves quite the hole early on facing a 19-point deficit midway through the opening quarter before rallying back at the end of the first and throughout the second to take an 11-point lead into halftime.

Boston’s three-point reliance was unable to make up for Chicago’s dominance on the glass and at the line.

Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla was ejected for the first time in his career late in the third quarter whilst Grant Williams also found himself tossed for arguing with the officials.

For Boston, Jayson Tatum led the way with a game-high 26 points on 8-of-18 from the field and 4-of-4 from three to go along with eight rebounds and five assists.

Jaylen Brown struggled shooting the ball for much of the night finishing with 21 points on 8-of-23 from the field whilst Derrick White shot just 2-of-8 for five points.

Boston move to 3-1 on the year after picking up wins over Philadelphia, Miami and Chicago to start the season whilst the Bulls improve to 2-2 after back-to-back losses to Washington and Cleveland.

With Robert Williams III expected to be sidelined for the foreseeable future after undergoing knee surgery over the offseason, the Celtics have leant on the likes of Noah Vonleh, Grant Williams and Blake Griffin to fill the void in the middle to varying results.

Williams III’s absence was felt tonight with Vučević and the Bulls finishing plus-15 in the rebounding battle.

The Bulls, meanwhile, are still without Lonzo Ball but have been buoyed by the continued rise of second-year guard Dosunmu who has averaged 12.8 ppg and 5.3 rpg on 50 per cent from three across his first four starts.

The Bulls will host Indiana on Thursday whilst the Celtics will host Cleveland on Saturday.

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