BOSTON — The Celtics opened 2026 NBA Cup group play by cruising past the Chicago Bulls for the second time in five days.

Boston won, 125-111, on an ooze-green TD Garden court Friday night, leading by as many as 32 points against a rebuilding Bulls squad.

As was the case on Monday, when the Celtics crushed Chicago 134-99 in the same arena, Jayson Tatum and Payton Pritchard were Boston’s primary offensive engines. Pritchard scored 20 of his 30 points during a dominant first half. Tatum finished with 26 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, though the pair also combined for seven turnovers and 10 fouls.

Paul George chipped in another strong all-around outing, finishing with 18 points, eight assists, six rebounds and three of Boston’s 10 steals in 26 minutes. All but one of the Celtics’ steals came before halftime, when they looked poised to hand their visitors an even more lopsided defeat.

A second-half letdown prevented Boston from padding its NBA Cup point differential — the second group-stage tiebreaker after head-to-head.

Both teams attacked the rim at will during the opening minutes, combining to score eight of the game’s first nine baskets inside the restricted area. The Celtics got points on each of their first six attempts from that zone — five assisted layups and a drawn foul by Mitchell Robinson.

Tatum provided the Celtics’ first non-paint bucket when he drilled a straightaway 3-pointer off a George steal. It was one of two steals George recorded in the first quarter; he turned the other into a fast-break dunk.

The Bulls quickly tailed off after their efficient start. The Celtics stayed hot throughout the first half.

Team-wide, Boston shot 13 for 15 from inside the arc and 10 for 12 at the rim in the first while also racking up six steals. Chicago had no answer for Pritchard or Neemias Queta, who combined for 19 points on 6-of-7 shooting with three steals in the opening period. George and Tatum added eight and nine points in the first, respectively, as the Celtics built a 44-25 lead.

Pritchard kept the pedal down in the second quarter. He dropped Norman Powell with a vicious step back 3-pointer, wrestled an offensive rebound away from Matas Buzelis for a second-chance layup and drilled a 3 in transition off a Derrick White steal.

That shot stretched Boston’s lead to 28. It reached 30 after Tatum pulled up for a midrange jumper over Isaac Okoro.

At halftime, Tatum had 16 points, Pritchard had 20 and the Celtics led 78-49. It was the second-highest-scoring half by any NBA team this season, trailing only an 80-pointer by San Antonio against Sacramento.

The third quarter was a slog for the Celtics, who lost their flow and grew stagnant offensively. The Bulls never truly threatened — 18 points was the closest they got before garbage time — but they held Boston to 21 third-quarter points after surrendering 44 in the first and 34 in the second.

Tatum and Chicago’s Jalen Smith were called for technical fouls on separate fourth-quarter plays. The Celtics also received a team technical.

Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla sent in depth wing Ron Harper Jr. and rookie big man Chris Cenac Jr. for the final three minutes.

Among negatives Mazzulla will critique after this one, outside of his team’s general malaise after halftime: The Celtics fouled two 3-point shooters — an issue for them in their season-opening loss in Detroit — and allowed 20 offensive rebounds that led to 25 Bulls points.

Robinson also has yet to find his groove in his first season as a Celtic. Though he scored 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting, he was a minus-3 in 18 minutes in a game Boston won by 14. Fifth starter Jordan Walsh played just 10 minutes and committed four fouls.

After playing four of their first five games on their home parquet, the Celtics now enter a grueling November in which they’ll play just four total games at TD Garden. The other 12 will be on the road, beginning Sunday with a visit to the Orlando Magic.

Eight of those 12 are part of multi-city back-to-backs: Orlando-Houston, Philadelphia-Toronto, Sacramento-Golden State and San Antonio-Dallas. They won’t play more than two consecutive games in Boston until Dec. 14, 16 and 18.

“I think that’s where you lean on the strength of your group and the strength of your locker room to just support one another,” Celtics assistant coach Tony Dobbins said before Friday’s win. “Whatever challenge that a particular game or a particular set of games or particular road trip might bring, we feel confident that we have the personnel and the personalities and the characteristics and the character within that locker room to navigate it. So this early in the season, it just gives you a chance to see how that plays out.”

Dobbins, who handled pregame media obligations while Mazzulla attended a senior night ceremony for his stepson at Xaverian High School, compared the glut of away dates, this early in the season, to a team traveling during training camp.

“You get to just be together, be on the road, face some challenges, build some camaraderie and just see how it plays out on a night-to-night basis,” Dobbins said. “If it goes well, then we sit down and we watch film and we learn from it.”

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