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BOSTON – The Boston Celtics spoke to the media, following their 117-92 win over the Chicago Bulls.
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KYRIE IRVING:
What keyed the run in the 3rd when you took control?
“Just our pace, staying on the boards, making sure we were communicating what we needed to do to extend the lead as best we could, whether we were making shots or not. We did have a few shots go down which extended it. That is the type of basketball we want to play on a consistent basis.”
COACH BRAD STEVENS ON AMAZING 3rd QUARTER:
“Well, first of all I thought – I thought we played great in the first half and I thought they played great in the first half. I mean, I thought it was – we walked back in to the coaches’ meeting room at halftime and we were just kind of like, ‘That was high-level basketball both ways.’ And that was the best we’ve played in a while, and we had to be that, just to be up four at halftime, and then we continued it at the start of the third quarter and played with a pretty good purpose. I thought obviously we looked fresher; we looked like we had our legs under us. We were excited to play coming off those two tough losses. And that’s a good basketball team. I mean, and they were really playing at a high level. You could see that in the first half.”
JAYLEN BROWN ON PAYBACK FROM DEC 11th LOSS TO BULLS
“For sure, we definitely came out and played. We marked this one down, even after we lost that we wanted to make an emphasis on this game. We feel like they played really well, but we beat them. And when they beat us a few weeks ago I feel like we beat ourselves. Tonight we just had to come out and play and just be the best version of us.”
DANIEL THEIS ON WHAT KEYED 3rd QUARTER RUN
“I think we went back to our basketball. We played defense, we ran transitions, we made open shots, we shot the ball; we didn’t do this the last couple games when we lost. We also played faster after the misses, so we tried to run today. I think it worked out pretty good.”