LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Jaylen Brown scored 28 points and Jayson Tatum added 23 as the Boston Celtics cruised to a 121-107 victory over Brooklyn on Friday, snapping a two-game National Basketball Association skid as they got their first taste of the new in-season tournament.
Stung by back-to-back defeats, the Celtics came out strong and led by as many as 17 in a first half in which they made 12 three-pointers.
Brooklyn cut the deficit to nine points going into the fourth quarter, but Boston, with a strong effort from their bench, pulled away for the win.
Tatum was delighted to get back in the win column.
“It’s a long season,” he said. “You want to win all of them but, you know, that’s unlikely.”
“It’s just about how you respond and you regroup. And I think we did that in a big way tonight.”
That was more important, he indicated, than getting off on the right foot in the new Cup-style tournament that will see eight teams advance from group play to knockout rounds, all culminating with a title match on 9 December in Las Vegas.
All the games in the tournament, except for the final, count in the regular-season standings.
“Yeah, it would be nice to win (the in-season tournament), but more importantly it was just good to get back in the winning column.”
“We lost two in a row, so it was important to come back home and get a win.”
Things were tougher for Philadelphia, but Joel Embiid scored 33 points and Tyrese Maxey added 29 to lead the 76ers back from a 16-point deficit to a 114-106 victory over the Pistons in Detroit.
