LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Boston improved its perfect National Basketball Association home record to 14-0 on Sunday as Jaylen Brown keyed a fourth-quarter surge that saw the Celtics pull away for a 114-97 victory over the Orlando Magic.
Brown scored 17 of his 31 points in the final period to help the Celtics, who led by nine through three quarters, push their lead to as many as 23.
Jayson Tatum scored 23 points, and Kristaps Porzingis added 15 points and 10 rebounds in his return from a one-game absence.
The Celtics withstood a 36-point, 10-rebound performance from Orlando’s Paolo Banchero to beat the Magic for the second time in three days.
Stung by that defeat on Friday, the Magic raced to an early 10-point lead, but the Celtics turned the tide in the second quarter and never trailed after the break.
Brown, who added five rebounds, six assists, one steal and one block, said his fourth-quarter burst was just a matter of falling into a rhythm.
“I’m a do whatever our team needs kind of guy,” he said.
“First quarter, fourth quarter, it doesn’t matter, I just take advantage of the opportunities I get.”
The Milwaukee Bucks stayed a game and a half behind the East-leading Celtics with a 128-119 victory over the Houston Rockets.
Damian Lillard scored 39 points and Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 26 points and pulled down 17 rebounds — passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the Bucks’ all-time rebounding leader.
Antetokounmpo, already the Bucks’ all-time leader in points and assists, claimed the franchise rebounding mark with his 14th of the night midway through the fourth quarter that took his career tally to 17,162.
The bruising encounter in Milwaukee saw Antetokounmpo leave the court to have a bleeding cut on his arm taken care of and Milwaukee’s Pat Connaughton take an elbow to the jaw from Houston’s Dillon Brooks.
