Brown scores 40 as Celtics roll over Lakers for fifth straight win

The Celtics fly home on Friday in a position some would have laughed at a week ago.

They finished off their three-city Western swing with a 121-113 run over the Lakers on Thursday night, following up wins in Denver and Portland.

The win was not only their fifth straight — it moved them into a tie with Atlanta, a loser to Milwaukee earlier in the day, for the fourth playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. Alas, the Hawks own the tiebreaker over the Celtics with two wins over the C’s.

Robert Williams was a midday scratch due to knee soreness, and still, for a change, the Celtics had a major manpower advantage against a stripped-down Lakers team that was missing LeBron James, Anthony Davis and more.

Though the Celtics got just about anything they wanted against the depleted Lakers, it was Jaylen Brown’s turn to shine with a 40-point, 17-for-20, eight-rebound, four-steal masterpiece.

The game was well into garbage time when the Lakers went on a run against a Celtics bench unit, cutting the Celtics lead to five points. Brad Stevens was forced to send his starters back in, and with Brown, Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart back on the floor, the Celtics pulled it out.

Brown’s drive for a 117-110 lead with a minute left, then another drive for his 40th point, barely iced it.

In what was the most efficient night of his career, Brown had 30 points on 13-for-15 shooting by the end of the third. And despite a two-man attack from Kyle Kuzma and Marc Gasol in that quarter, the Celtics pushed into the fourth with a 91-79 lead.

Brown also opened the fourth with a 3-pointer for a 15-point edge, and with Luke Kornet setting him up with a block, finished again off the break for a 96-79 lead.

Payton Pritchard buried a 3 the next time down, and the Celtics now had their first 20-point lead of the night.

The run reached 10-0 on a Grant Williams lob conversion, and with nine minutes left Stevens had pulled his starters from the game with a 106-81 lead.

The Celtics, with Brown’s 21-point, 9-for-10 first half the head of the attack, jumped out to a 62-48 halftime lead. Above all, though, they limited the Lakers’ limited options with consistent pressure and coverage.

The Celtics got off to a sloppy start in the third, with Kuzma heating up and cutting the C’s lead under 10 points early in the quarter.

Back-to-back 3s from Tatum and Smart bailed them out of immediate danger, and the Celtics continued to get just about anything they wanted.

With 3:12 left in the third all five starters were in double-figures, with an 82-72 lead, immediately punctured by a deep Kuzma 3-pointer.

Smart came out of a timeout with his third 3 of the night, and Brown twice answered Lakers scores with acrobatic drives, each time pushing the Celtics cushion back to 10 points, and then a 91-79 halftime lead.

The Celtics landed a first-quarter haymaker, opening the game with an 18-4 run, the first 14 split between Brown and Tatum, including 10 from Brown on 4-for-5 shooting in the first four minutes.

They inevitably cooled off, and after leading by as many as 14 points carried a 31-23 lead into the second quarter.

The Lakers cut the Celtics lead as close as four points twice midway through the quarter, including 40-36 with 5 minutes left in the half.

Smart scored the first Celtics points in almost three minutes, Thompson converted a Smart lob, and the Celtics, with a big boost from a Tatum 3-pointer, a Thompson three-point play, and a Brown 3-pointer, closed out the first half with a 62-48 lead.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3tq9B5A