On Sunday, the eighth-seeded Chicago Bulls defeated the number one seeded Boston Celtics in TD Garden 106-102 to take a 1-0 series lead. The Bulls were led by Jimmy Butler’s 30 points and an overall great team effort on the boards, as they outrebounded the Celtics 65 to 44.
Another bright spot for Chicago was Butler’s defense on Boston’s Isaiah Thomas, Butler was able to frustrate Thomas with his length when he matched up against him. Subsequently, Butler’s big performance sparked veteran Dwyane Wade to compare his game to that of LeBron James’.
Following from Nick Friedell of ESPN.
“I had the luxury of playing with a guy named LeBron.” Wade said before Monday’s practice. “And we did the same thing when we played — to Derrick Rose. You have a point guard who guards him but when you need a guy who’s longer, who’s just as fast, and all those things, it helps. It gives them a different look, it kind of throws off things.
It’s good to be able to have a guy like that to say, ‘get us 30, and then go guard the guy that’s got 30.'”
“As I sit here, obviously Jimmy, Paul [George] Kawhi [Leonard], Draymond [Green] Bron,” Wade said.
That’s very high praise from an established veteran like Dwyane Wade and the play of Jimmy Butler is very encouraging for the Bulls in the playoffs moving forward.
