Bulls Score 81 Points And Lose

April 11, 1999 / 11:46 PM EDT / CBS/AP

The way things have been going for the Boston Celtics, they could care less about the Chicago Bulls' scoring troubles.

The Bulls managed to increase their offensive output to 81 points, but it still wasn't enough as they followed their 49-point debacle with an 87-81 loss to the Celtics on Sunday night.

Chicago, which lost 82-49 at home Saturday against Miami to shatter the NBA record for fewest points, has lost four straight and five in a row on the road. The Bulls own the league's lowest scoring average.

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"We have enough of our own problems than to worry about their low scoring (game)," Boston forward Walter McCarty said. "We just didn't want them to get off to a good start."

Antoine Walker scored 16 of his 23 points in the second half as the Celtics posted just their second home win in their last nine games.

In recent home games, the Celtics have been booed loudly and often. A poor showing against the struggling Bulls would have been embarrassing.

"We saw how many points they scored (Saturday)," Boston's Ron Mercer said. "We thought they would come out and play hard. But we were going to go out and play hard as well."

Mercer had 18 points, while Paul Pierce and Dana Barros added 10 points apiece for the Celtics.

After Saturday night's blowout against the Heat, the Bulls looked determined from the start, jumping to a 20-15 lead just under nine minutes into the game.

In Saturday's loss, the Heat scored the game's first 15 points.

"We played better tonight," Bulls coach Tim Floyd said. "Making baskets has been a problem for us all year. We talked a great deal about (Saturday's game) before the game. Scoring (so few points) ment we had no easy shots. We needed to get pushed in our offense."

Toni Kukoc paced Chicago with 23 points, seven rebounds and sven assists. Ron Harper had 19 points.

Boston took the lead for good on Walker's basket that made it 49-48 midway into the third quarter. The Celtics pushed their lead to 68-61 on McCarty's jumper early in the final quarter before the Bulls cut it to 76-75 on Harper's 3-pointer with 6:41 to play.

Walker, the subject of most of the boos during poor shooting games, then followed with a 3-pointer and Mercer nailed a jumper after a Chicago basket, making it 81-77 with just under four minutes left.

The Bulls never moved closer than three points the rest of the way as Boston sealed it with a shot-clock beating jumper by Vitaly Potapenko and two free throws by Barros in the final 13 seconds.

The Celtics, who trailed 22-21 after one quarter, came back and grabbed a 33-30 edge in the second before the Bulls closed the half by scoring seven of the last 11 points to tie it at intermission.

"Hopefully the adversity will pay off," Walker said. "We're paid a lot of money to play this game so we're finding out a lot about the personality of this team."

Notes: Boston guard Kenny Anderson was sidelined with a strained right hamstring injury and center Dwayne Schintzius was not with the team due to a death in the family. ... Bulls forward Mark Bryant was out with a left shoulder stinger suffered in Saturday's loss. He will be re-evaluated Monday.