CHICAGO – Rookie Tyrus Thomas scored a career-high 23 points, Ben Wallace added 19 points, 16 rebounds and three blocked shots, and the Chicago Bulls beat the Boston Celtics 95-87 on Tuesday night.

Luol Deng scored 19 points and Kirk Hinrich finished with 15 for Chicago, which beat Boston for the eighth straight time.

Wallace made nine of a career-high 21 field goal attempts and fell just short of his career best of 22 points.

Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 24 points, and Delonte West added 19 after missing two games with a mild concussion.

West’s three-pointer cut the Chicago lead to 76-72 with 10:58 left in the game before Thomas slashed through the lane and finished it off with a dunk.

Hinrich added two free throws to put Chicago up 82-75.

After Al Jefferson’s basket cut the Bulls’ lead to 89-83 with 1:27 left, Wallace found Thomas for an alley-oop dunk.

It was the first time Thomas has led the Bulls in scoring.

Chicago has won six of its last seven games.

The Bulls, who beat the Celtics on Sunday, took a 75-69 lead into the fourth quarter after Thomas finished an alley-oop with 5.l seconds left in the third quarter.

Chicago led 50-47 at the half. Deng scored 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting in the half, and Pierce led the Celtics with 13 points.

Pierce got off to a good start after being held to a season-low eight points in his other two meetings against Chicago.

Thomas was 5-for-5 from the field and added 10 points off the bench for Chicago in the first half, including a highlight reverse alley-oop dunk.

He also had a dunk over Jefferson in the third quarter.

Jefferson finished with 19 points and eight rebounds.