Basketball: Boston Celtics beat Chicago Bulls, take 3-2 series lead

Boston Celtics centre Al Horford slams home a dunk against the Chicago Bulls. Photo / AP

Isaiah Thomas and Avery Bradley scored 24 points each to help the Boston Celtics beat the Chicago Bulls 108-97 and take a 3-2 lead in their first-round playoff series.

After the road team won each of the first four games, the Celtics won at home in Game 5 to earn a chance to eliminate the Bulls on Saturday in Chicago. A Bulls victory would force the series back to Boston for a decisive Game 7 on Monday.

Dwyane Wade had 26 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists for Chicago.

But Wade and Robin Lopez were called for technical fouls 32 seconds apart with just under five minutes left, helping the Celtics to a 20-5 run that turned an 84-84 game into a 15-point Boston lead.

The Bulls cut it to nine before Al Horford got loose for a dunk, Wade missed a three-pointer and then Horford fed Jae Crowder for a layup that made it 108-95 with 99 seconds to play.

Despite the technical fouls, there was little of the tension that characterised Game 4, when Jimmy Butler and Marcus Smart got in each other's face on the court and continued the criticism in their postgame comments.

Horford had 21 points, nine assists and seven rebounds for Boston, which entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the East. The Celtics lost the first two games at home - with Game 1 just a day after Thomas' sister died in a car crash.

After Bulls point guard Rajon Rondo broke his thumb, though, the Celtics took Games 3 and 4 in Chicago to tie the series.

The Celtics started slowly on their home court, making just one of their first nine shots to fall behind 12-4. Boston missed its first eight three-point attempts before making three in a row at the end of the first quarter.

Rondo, who was the point guard on the 2008 Celtics team that won the franchise's record 17th NBA title, did not play for the third straight game because of the broken thumb and strained ligament in his right wrist. He was on the court handling a basketball with his left hand before the game, then sat on the Bulls bench in a suit and cheered on his teammates.