The Boston Celtics won their fifth game in a row against the Cleveland Cavaliers Friday afternoon led by their potent duo of fourth-year wing Jaylen Brown and third-year swingman Jayson Tatum.
The Cal-Berkeley product led all scorers with 34 points (matching a career high) on 13-of-20 shooting, continuing to be lights-out from deep with 5 of his 10 attempts going in, chipping in 9 rebounds for good measure.
Tatum wasn’t far behind with a 30-point night of his own, hitting half of his 10 3-point attempts while pulling down 5 boards of his own.
Turkish big man Enes Kanter added 14 points and 9 rebounds off the bench.
Cleveland All-Star forward Kevin Love had one of his better games against Boston in some time with 30 points and 7 rebounds for the Cavs.
Even still, not even the UCLA product’s production coupled with a 21-point supporting performance by second-year point guard Collin Sexton was enough to give the Cavs much chance against the Jay Team and company.
The game was close for much of the first frame before Boston began to pull away in the second, with Tatum helping the Celtics open up a 23-point lead with 24 of his 30 points in the first half.
Cleveland closed to within nine at the end of the penultimate frame and again with roughly ten minutes left in the contest, but the outcome of the game was never in doubt in the near wire-to-wire win.
The 22-7 Celtics next face the 21-10 Toronto Raptors in a rematch of their Christmas Day win in Canada at TD Garden tomorrow, Dec. 28 at 7pm ET.
Toronto will be without wing Pascal Siakam, center Marc Gasol and shooting guard Norman Powell, who are all still recuperating from various injuries.
Boston’s defensive specialist Marcus Smart is a possibility to play after missing several weeks to an eye infection, and forward Gordon Hayward — who has been dealing with foot pain — is probable.
