The Celtics beat the Charlotte Hornets 113-102 Tuesday night at TD Garden in what could potentially be a first-round playoff matchup, to win their season-series 2-1.
Jaylen Brown scored 35 points (his 35th 30-point game of the 2025-26 campaign) to go along with grabbing nine rebounds. The five-time All-Star reached 2,000 points on the season for the first time in his career, becoming the eighth Celtic to accomplish the feat. Jayson Tatum added 23 points, five rebounds and four assists.
Neemias Queta, Derrick White, and Payton Pritchard each chipped in 12 points respectively to help the Celtics improve to 54-25 on the season and increase their second place lead in the Eastern Conference over the New York Knicks to three games.
LaMelo Ball finished with a game-high 36 points through three quarters before going scoreless in the final frame, but did record five rebounds and six assists. Brandon Miller had 20 points, while Miles Bridges recorded a double-double of 13 points, 12 rebounds and Rookie of the Year candidate Kon Knueppel also netted 13 points for the Hornets -- who fell to 43-27 and are currently ninth in the East.
Boston trailed by as much as 11 points in the first half and were down 61-55 at the break, before going on a 10-0 spurt to close the third period -- outscoring the Hornets 35-26 overall and take a 90-87 advantage into the fourth.
The Celtics continued to pour it on to open the final quarter -- never giving up a lead while completing a 33-15 run to hold on and grab their 28th victory at home.
"This team kind of reminds me of us when we were younger," Brown said of the Hornets in his NBC postgame interview. "Young group, shoot the ball well, got a lot of different guys that can beat you, and have a fearlessness. So they came out ready to play."
With three games left in the regular season, the Celtics can officially clinch the second seed with a win over the Knicks (51-28) Thursday night at Madison Square Garden. Prime Video will have the tip-off at 7:30 pm ET.
Game Notes:
Boston connected on 49% of their field goal attempts, including going 17-of-42 (40%) from deep while the Hornets were 43% from the floor and 16-of-49 (33%) from 3-point range. The Celtics out-rebounded the visiting team 45-40 and outscored them in the paint 44-32. The C's dished out 22 assists on 43 baskets and turned the ball over 14 times to Charlotte's 24 dimes on 38 made shots and 13 turnovers.
Joel Pavón
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