Celtics show no mercy while beating up on Bulls

BOSTON -- If the Bulls didn't already know, they received a stark reminder Friday of where they stand in the Eastern Conference pecking order.

Two nights earlier, Detroit handed the Boston Celtics their first home loss of the season in an entertaining battle that was billed as a conference finals preview.

The Bulls are 2-0 against the Pistons this season, so theoretically they should be right in the mix of Eastern powers. But the Bulls demonstrated once again that they have more in common with the New York Knicks, who lost by 45 points at Boston on Nov. 29.

In their second shot at the new-look Celtics this season, the Bulls fell behind by 18 points before the second quarter was half over and were never again competitive in a dismal 107-82 loss.

"That's been troubling all year. We've been up and down," forward Luol Deng said. "There are games where we play well and there are games we just look terrible out there. We keep saying the same thing that we've got to find it. But the season's wearing down. Somehow we've got to figure out a way to be consistent."

Once the game got out of hand, Celtics stars Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce made sure to rub it in by standing on the sideline screaming instructions to the subs, as well as yelling at the some of the Bulls' shooters.

Garnett thought it was funny to yell "board" every five seconds when the Celtics had the ball.

"Tonight was a statement game for us," Garnett said. "We needed this game for confidence. You could tell at shootaround that we were fired up."

Ben Gordon scored 19 points, and rookie center Aaron Gray came through again, scoring 14 points and grabbing 6 rebounds.

But Kirk Hinrich (2 points, 4 turnovers) had an awful game, while Deng hit 3 of 10 shots for just 8 points.

The four Bulls starters other than Gordon combined to score 20 points, shoot 30 percent from the field (7-for-23) and pile up 10 turnovers compared to 5 assists.

Gray briefly resuscitated the visitors by contributing 2 baskets and an assist during a 7-1 run that brought the Bulls within 56-41 at intermission.

But the game got away shortly after Hinrich threw away his third bad pass in a three-minute span. The last turnover led to a Pierce 3-pointer that made it 66-47 with 7:42 left in the third quarter, and things never got better for the Bulls (9-15).

"I just had a bad stretch there," said Hinrich, who sat out the final 20 minutes. "I got real turnover happy, and that was it."

Pierce (22 points) had a rare big game against the Bulls, hitting all 4 of his shots from 3-point range in the third quarter. Former Miami forward James Posey proved he's good for more than just flagrant fouls, knocking down 3 straight 3-pointers in the first half.

Overall, the Celtics (21-3) hit 12 of 26 attempts from long range.

"The loss to Detroit left a bad taste in our mouth," Pierce said. "It didn't matter who our opponent was going to be, we were going to come out and really take it to them, really be aggressive and play like we did today."