Bulls 97, Celtics 81
Derrick Rose added to his MVP resume with 30 points and eight assists as the Chicago Bulls won their fifth straight and moved a step closer to clinching the top spot in the Eastern Conference with a 97-81 victory over the visiting Boston Celtics on Thursday.
Luol Deng added 23 points and Carlos Boozer collected 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Bulls (58-20) who moved four games ahead of Boston (54-24) and the Miami Heat (54-24) with four left to play.
Chicago own the tiebreaker over the Heat but tied the season-series with Boston. Should the Bulls loss their final four and the Celtics win all of theirs, Boston will get the No. 1 seed due to a better conference record.
The Celtics were within 61-58 with 3:01 left in the third before Chicago took over, ending the third quarter with a 10-2 run to stretch the lead to double-digits. The Bulls would push it to as much as 85-68 when Rose buried a deep 3-pointer with 5:03 remaining in the fourth quarter before both team began pulling their starters.
Chicago held the Celtics to 38 percent shooting and allowed only one player - Paul Pierce with 15 - to score more than 10 points.