(Basketball news) The Boston Celtics continued their dominance as they beat the Sacramento Kings 132-109. For the Celtics, Jayson Tatum scored 36 points as Jaylen Brown added 27 points and Derrick White scored 20 to help them open up a one-game lead over Philadelphia. For the Kings, Domantas Sabonis had 16 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists as they lost consecutive games for the first time since Feb. 3-5 while De’Aaron Fox scored 18 points.

Sabonis’ 12 triple-doubles are second in the league this season to Denver’s Nikola Jokic, who has 28. Sacramento fell 1 1/2 games behind Memphis in the race for second place in the Western Conference. The Kings are trying to clinch their first playoff berth since 2006 which is the longest postseason drought in NBA history.

“He just did a great job coming out of the gate,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said of Tatum. “I thought him and Jaylen did a great job controlling the game with their decision-making.”

“They kicked our behinds,” coach Mike Brown said. “It started with me. We all got our behinds kicked. There’s nothing tricky or hidden behind what I’m saying. They switched everything and turned us over.”

“I was pleased with the mindset,” Mazzulla said. “The most important thing is we managed the turnovers. … We have to maintain a level of perspective. This was a hard road trip.”

“I feel like we all kind of felt it today,” Sabonis said. “It’s not an excuse. That’s a part of the schedule. Every team goes through it. At the end of the day we just had to fight through it and do a better job in the second half.”

The Oklahoma City Thunder narrowly edged out the Los Angeles Clippers as they beat them 101-100. For the OKC, Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points against his former team while Jalen Williams added 20 points. For the Clippers, George had 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists before potentially losing him so close to the end of the regular season could put their postseason aspirations in jeopardy while Kawhi Leonard finished with 21 points. There was no immediate update on George after the game. Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said he was still being evaluated as he later left the arena on the back of a cart with his right leg extended.

“I went up for the rebound, kind of hit his leg,” Dort said. “I didn’t do it on purpose, definitely an accident.”

“I didn’t see the play,” Leonard. “I just thought he got hit in the face at the time.”

“Next man up,” Leonard said about the possibility of playing without George. “We got a group of guys that still want to win, like to play basketball, so we’ll see what happens.”

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