(Basketball news) The Boston Celtics made it 10 wins in a row as they breezed past the Miami Heat 134-121. For the Celtics, Jayson Tatum had eight 3-pointers and scored a season-high 49 points. It was the All-Star\’s third 40-point game this season as he continues to pace the league\’s top-rated offense and make an early case for MVP consideration in his sixth NBA season. While Jaylen Brown had 26 points following a one-game absence due to neck stiffness. Malcolm Brogdon added 21 points. For the Heats, Max Strus finished with 23 points and five 3-pointers as Bam Adebayo also added 23 points before being ejected in the closing seconds following a pair of technical fouls while Tyler Herro chipped in 22 points and nine assists. With this result the Boston Celtics improved their record to 18-4 which is the best in the league by quite some margin.
“Just kind of being in the right spot” Tatum said. “I seen a couple go down early. Just kind of shooting in rhythm.”
”That’s the bar. Now we have to figure out how to overcome that to get a win,’ Spoelstra said. “Once they started knocking down a few, then everybody got involved in that.”
The Los Angeles Lakers bounced back from a disappointing loss to the Pacers to beat the Portland Trail Blazers 128-109. For the Lakers, LeBron James had 31 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, Austin Reaves added a season-high 22 points while Anthony Davis had 27 points and 12 rebounds for their sixth victory in eight games. For the Blazers, Jerami Grant scored 27 points, Anfernee Simons had 22 points and Justise Winslow added a season-high 21 points. With this result the Lakers improved their record to 8-12 after a dismal run of 5 consecutive losses, Darvin Ham’s side have restored parity amongst the record Champions.
“I think he was just himself in the fourth quarter,” James said of Davis. “(Tuesday) was a tough day for us, coming off that loss, but we had a lot of conversations about how we could be better, especially in the fourth quarter, and AD is a big part of that. … He’s too big-time for our team not to have the ball in his hands.”
“One thing about Bron, he holds himself accountable” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said.”He’s trending individually in the right direction, and that’s key. It’s imperative.”
”It’s a tall order to come in here on a back-to-back, off a very deflating loss,” Portland coach Chauncey Billups said. ”This is a challenge. But the guys fought, and they played hard. They just ran out of gas.”
”We’re just in a really tough stretch right now,” Billups said. “You’ve got to have energy and legs to be a good defensive team, and we’ve taken a step back in that.”
Also read: NBA: Lakers are narrowly beaten by the Pacers, Celtics rout the Hornets
