Jayson Tatum scored 32 points Saturday night as the Boston Celtics pulled away midway through the fourth quarter to remain unbeaten with a 124-114 victory over the Brooklyn Nets in New York.
The Celtics did not lead by more than 14 and appeared sluggish at times before improving to 5-0 for the first time since starting 2009-10 with six straight victories.
Tatum topped 30 points for the fourth time this season and also reached 10,000 points by converting a three-point play in the second quarter. At 25 years, 246 days, Tatum became the youngest player in Celtics history to reach the 10K milestone.
Tatum made 10 of 20 shots, hit six of Boston’s 15 3-pointers and collected 11 rebounds. Jaylen Brown added 23 points while Kristaps Porzingis had his way inside against Brooklyn’s smaller lineup and contributed 22 to help the Celtics get 52 points in the paint.
Jrue Holiday added 18 points and 10 assists as the Celtics shot 47.8 percent and improved to 11-1 in the past 12 meetings with the Nets, including playoffs.
Playing the second night of their first back-to-back, the Nets shot 43 percent and saw a three-game winning streak stopped. Brooklyn also shot 32.7 percent (17 of 52) from 3-point range.
Cam Thomas led the Nets with 27 points while Spencer Dinwiddie and Mikal Bridges added 19 apiece. The Nets played with Nic Claxton (ankle) and also rested Ben Simmons for the first time.
Brooklyn briefly got the lead early in the second but the Celtics scored the last eight points of the quarter and took a 70-58 halftime lead on Tatum’s 3 at the horn.
Dinwiddie scored 12 points in the third quarter as Brooklyn erased nearly all of its halftime deficit and rallied from an eight-point deficit to get within 91-88 going into the fourth quarter.
Boston let the lead slip to 96-95 when Dennis Smith Jr. hit a 3 with 6:47 remaining but Tatum hit two 3s in a 14-4 spurt that extended the lead to 110-99 with about five minutes left to effectively clinch it.
–Field Level Media
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