Celtics battle back to beat Wizards, Lakers down Pelicans
LOS ANGELES, United States -- The Boston Celtics shook off a sluggish start to beat lowly Washington on Friday (Saturday, Manila time) as the Los Angeles Lakers put on an offensive clinic in their NBA win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
The league-leading Celtics looked dull and disinterested in the early going against a Wizards team ranked second-from-bottom in the East.
Unable to contain Washington in transition, the Celtics surrendered 71 points in the first half and trailed by seven at the break.
But they out-scored the Wizards 36-16 in the third quarter to seize control, pushing their lead to as many as 15 points and holding off a late Washington rally to triumph 133-129.
Jayson Tatum scored 35 points with 10 rebounds and eight assists for Boston and Kristaps Porzingis added 34 points and 11 rebounds for his former team.
Porzingis told NBC Sports Boston he didn't think the Celtics' first half was "all that bad."
"But the second half we knew we had to take away their transition," he said. "Second half we turned up our intensity."
Tatum said it might not have been pretty, but he was satisfied with the Celtics' 40th win of the season.
"We did a lot of good things out there and we had to figure it out," Tatum said. "But a win is a win, so we'll take it."
In Los Angeles, D'Angelo Russell scored 21 of his 30 points in the first half, when the Lakers put up 87 points on the way to a 139-122 victory over the Pelicans.
The Lakers scored 51 points in the second quarter and all five Lakers starters finished with at least 20 points.
In Sacramento, center Domantas Sabonis out-dueled Denver's two-time Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic, posting his 16th triple-double of the season to propel the Kings to a 135-106 victory over the reigning champion Nuggets.
- 'Extra fire' -
"As a competitor you always want to go against the best," Sabonis told NBC Sports California of taking on Jokic -- who is now second behind Sabonis on the season triple-double list with 15. "Every matchup you get against him you've got that extra fire."
Sabonis connected on seven of his nine shots from the field on the way to 17 points, adding 17 rebounds and 10 assists.
Malik Monk led the Kings scoring
