Jaylen Brown scored 30 points, Luke Garza added a season-high 22 — including 11 in the fourth quarter — and Payton Pritchard had 19 to lead the Boston Celtics to 117-112 victory Friday night over the host Memphis Grizzlies for their fourth consecutive win.
Derrick White contributed 14 points for the Celtics (47-23) and Jayson Tatum scored 13 (on 3-of-15 shooting) with nine rebounds. Neemias Queta had 12 points and 11 rebounds.
The second-place Celtics kept pace with the Detroit Pistons, who beat the Golden State Warriors on Friday and remain four games up in the race for the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
The Grizzlies got 23 points off the bench from Tyler Burton, 16 points and seven assists from Ty Jerome, and 14 points and seven assists from Olivier-Maxence Prosper. DeJon Jarreau and Javon Small finished with 13 points apiece. Memphis (24-45) lost for the ninth time in its past 10 games.
The Grizzlies were up by four points to start the fourth quarter and quickly extended their advantage to seven points at 98-91 after a fastbreak layup by Jaylen Wells following a steal.
But the Celtics regrouped. Boston put together a 10-0 run after Jarreau’s jumper in the paint had given Memphis its last lead at 103-102. Baylor Scheierman closed the run with a layup for a 112-103 advantage with 1:47 to go.
Tatum, who made his debut a week ago after coming back from a ruptured right Achilles 10 months ago, had two points during the run.
Memphis erased a 59-56 deficit early in the third quarter and led by as many as six points on several occasions in the period. The Grizzlies led 88-84 entering the final quarter. Cam Spencer had two 3-pointers in the quarter for Memphis.
Boston led 55-54 at the half on the strength of Brown, who had 16 points, and Pritchard, who had 12. Tatum struggled in the opening half by going 1 of 10 from the floor. The Celtics made 15 of 17 free throws in the half and outrebounded the Grizzlies, 30-20.
–Field Level Media
