Game 15: The Bulls get their sixth straight against Boston
Basketball-Reference box score.
It’s fitting that a TNT game would cap off maybe the brightest stretch of what became a pretty dismal season for Chicago. (It gets worse, 2016 self. Savor it while you can.) The Bulls put together a complete game and comfortably beat the Celtics 101-92, spurred on by 19 Butler and 18 from Rose.
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Boston had been struggling, and this proved to be their fourth loss in five games. They were a measly 5-for-25 from long range and shot 35.7 percent from the field as a whole. They scored only 16 points in the third quarter, and that allowed the Bulls to open up a comfortable lead after a relatively close first half.
Chicago had a feel-good victory that night, but there wouldn’t be many to look forward to afterward. The Bulls would go on to lose three straight and 14 of their next 19 games, starting a rough patch that would cause them to miss the playoffs for the first time since they won the lottery in 2008 and drafted Rose.
This Bulls team was about to encounter a heck of a lot of change, but for now, they were content to celebrate six wins in a row and their chances to finally topple Lebron. Hope is a fickle thing.