Celtics (18-4) at Bulls (8-13)
Game time: 8:00pm, United Center, Chicago. TV - CSN. Radio - WEEI-AM (850).
Team Leaders
Scoring
Bos: Pierce - 18.1 Bulls: Luol Deng - 17.5
Rebounding
Bos: Perkins - 7.7 Bulls: Joakim Noah - 11.7
Assists
Bos: Rondo - 9.3 Bulls: Derrick Rose - 5.6
Who'll go off: Paul Pierce. You can only keep this guy down for so long. He's averaging a paltry 12.8 ppg for December. I'm expecting a breakout game, whether Luol Deng (who played 52 minutes last night vs Golden St) is guarding him, or not.
Who needs to be stopped: Joakim Noah. The Celtics rebounded much better against the Wizards and we hope it continues against Chicago. The goal is to keep Noah off the offensive boards. He's the Bulls energy guy, limit his dunk and putbacks and it will help keep Chicago in check.
The C's will lose if... The Bulls make their 3s. Chicago is a mediocre three-point shooting team. If these shots are falling tonight, it could be problematic for Boston.
Wildcard: Chicago is a tired team. They're coming off an overtime win versus Golden State and this will be their fourth game in five nights. The Bulls are 0-4 on the second night of back-to-backs. The last two times the Bulls played back-to-back games, they lost by 32 to Toronto and 35 to Atlanta.
Prediction: Celtics 110 - Bulls 87
After the jump, the Bulls dancers.