NBA: Boston Celtics Sink Sacramento Kings 132-109 as Jayson Tatum Shines

Jayson Tatum scored 36 points and the Boston Celtics ended a long road trip on a high note by beating the Sacramento Kings 132-109 on Tuesday night.

Boston bounced back from blowing a 19-point lead in Utah on Saturday night by knocking off one of the top teams in the Western Conference. It won four of six on the road trip.

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Jaylen Brown added 27 points and Derrick White scored 20 to help the Celtics open up a one-game lead over Philadelphia in the Atlantic Division.

Domantas Sabonis had 16 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists for the Kings, who lost consecutive games for the first time since Feb. 3-5. De’Aaron Fox scored 18 points.

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 — the longest postseason drought in NBA history.

Playing their fifth game in seven nights in their fourth time zone, the Kings offered little defensive resistance for Boston.

The Celtics shot 53.3% from the field, turned the ball over only five times and took control of the game during a torrid shooting stretch coming out of halftime.

Boston hit 10 of its first 11 shots from the field in the third quarter, scoring 27 points in less than six minutes to build the lead up to 14 points on a 3-pointer by White.

The Kings never really threatened after that.

The Celtics scored the final nine points of the first half on 3-pointers by Al Horford and Brown, and a three-point play by Tatum to take a 60-54 lead at the break.

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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)