BOSTON --- With a date with history waiting for them on Friday night, the Boston Celtics could have been guilty of looking past Wednesday night's game with the Chicago Bulls.

Instead the Celtics kept the 23-0 Golden State Warriors on the back burner and responded by coming off a long road trip with a hard-fought 105-100 victory over the Bulls.

"I'm a realist, if we were (looking ahead) we were going to get beat," Celtics coach Brad Stevens said after his team broke a 77-77 tie with a 10-0 run. "We found out we weren't, which was good, That's the way you hope that you're going to be, but you can never predict human nature,"

The Warriors are off before invading with their undefeated record. They will now face a Celtics team that followed a 3-2 road trip that included a stop in Mexico City with a very big win.

"I thought they did a really good job of focusing on the job at hand, which was a tough task," Stevens said. "We talked about not having any excuses at the end of a road trip or coming back home. We're here to perform and We're here to play well."

Stevens kept the Celtics (13-9), away from the court after returning from New Orleans overnight Monday until the Wednesday afternoon shoot-around.

Forward David Lee, who missed the two previous games with a heel injury, scored six points and guard Evan Turner had two points and three assists during the run that turned the tie into an 87-77 Celtics lead with 6:55 left.

The Bulls (11-8) lost their third straight despite a career-high 36 points from guard Jimmy Butler and closed within three with three minutes left.

Five straight points by guard Isaiah Thomas brought the lead back to eight. The Bulls got as close as four but no closer.

Turner and Lee, both coming off the bench, finished with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Lee grabbed six rebounds and Turner had seven assists. Reserve forward Kelly Olynyk scored 15 points.

Thomas, scoreless in the first half, finished with 20 points, five assists and five rebounds to lead eight Celtics in double figures. Forward Jared Sullinger, coming off a 20-rebound game in a win at New Orleans on Monday night, had 16 boards and 10 points.

Forwards Jae Crowder and Amir Johnson added 13 and 12 points, respectively, and guard Avery Bradley had 10 points.

"I thought we did a tremendous job on focusing on the game in front of us and we've been doing that all year," Sullinger said. "On Friday we're going to take it as another game.

"I know they're coming in on a hot streak, they're undefeated, but we can't look at it as the Super Bowl. It's another game, another chance to get another win and carry ourselves like that."

Center Pau Gasol had 16 points and 15 rebounds, guard Derrick Rose added 12 points and six assists, forward Doug McDermott contributed 11 points and seven rebounds and forward Nikola Mirotic had 10 points for the Bulls, who are struggling.

"You gotta stick together. You gotta find ways," Gasol said. "Obviously, we're going to try and bounce, and have a sense of urgency. And try to turn it around tomorrow."

Added Rose: "I really don't know how the team will react. This is our first time ever really going through it. We've been together for a long time, and we're just trying to figure things out."

NOTES: After the Bulls blew a huge fourth-quarter lead and lost to the Phoenix Suns in Chicago on Monday night, coach Fred Hoiberg inserted F Taj Gibson in favor of F Nikola Mirotic in the starting lineup. ... Boston rookie G R.J. Hunter missed his second straight with a strained hip flexor. ... Bulls G Derrick Rose came in hitting just 35.4 percent from the floor and was 5 of 11 in the loss. His inside game was at the root of the problem. C Joakim Noah and Rose were at the bottom of the league as the two worst shooters from inside the restricted area, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Of the 146 players who had taken at least 50 shots from that inside the arc under the basket, Noah was last at 40 percent. Rose, who still hasn't dunked this season, was close behind at 40.4. ... The Celtics observed a pregame moment of silence for Jim Loscutoff, the only player to have his name and not his number retired by the team. He died Dec. 1. The team wore "Loscy" T-shirts and had a black ribbon on their game jerseys.