Jayson Tatum racked up 33 points, nine rebounds and six assists to propel the Boston Celtics to a come-from-behind, 108-104 overtime victory over the visiting Brooklyn Nets on Friday.
Tatum was 11-of-25 shooting and hit five 3-pointers en route to his sixth 30-point game of the season.
Boston’s Payton Pritchard added 20 points, Jrue Holiday 17 and Derrick White 14 and six assists, while Al Horford posted his first double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
The Celtics had a 14-10 scoring edge in overtime. Horford’s corner 3-pointer off a Tatum skip pass for a 105-102 lead with 1:19 left in overtime marked the winning basket.
Tatum’s turnaround shot followed a Dennis Schroder layup to put the game out of reach. Two free throws by Pritchard and another by White in the final 11 seconds closed out the win.
Cam Thomas had 31 points, Schroder 20 and Cameron Johnson added 18 points, eight rebounds and four assists for Brooklyn.
Boston did not lead until Sam Hauser’s offensive rebound led to a Holiday finger-roll layup finish with 4:24 left in the fourth, making it an 89-88 game.
After Schroder’s trey flipped Brooklyn back in front, Sam Hauser also knocked down a right-corner trey to put the Celtics up 92-91 with 2:06 to go.
The Celtics led again before regulation ended when Tatum’s drive and thunderous dunk made it 94-92 with 31.4 seconds left. A loose-ball foul on Tatum allowed Johnson to hit two free throws to force overtime.
The Celtics tied the score in the third quarter, but Johnson and Schroeder nailed triples to respond twice. Tatum’s jumper with 33.6 seconds left made it 76-76 and was followed by a Williams cut to the basket before the end of the period.
The Nets made their first five field goals during a 12-0 run off the opening tip. Thomas drained a step back 3-pointer as part of a 9-0 segment in 1:57 that forced a Celtics timeout.
A pair of 8-2 runs brought Boston within 28-24 after one. Two Tatum triples, including one off a Neemias Queta block, concluded the latter spurt.
Pritchard hit a trey out of the break to trim Boston’s deficit to one. Johnson’s 3-point play marked a quick response for Brooklyn, which grew its lead back to eight on a Ben Simmons driving layup with 4:59 left.
Brooklyn led 51-49 at halftime after Pritchard drove to finish a 3-point play at the 1:00 mark.
–Field Level Media