NBA champion Celtics bounce back to beat Pacers, Cavs down Nuggets

Jaylen Brown delivered a 44-point gem as the NBA champion Boston Celtics snapped a two-game losing streak with a 142-105 blowout of the Indiana Pacers on Friday.

Brown set the tone with 15 points in the first quarter, when the Celtics out-scored the Pacers 39-22 to take control.

He finished with six of the Celtics’ 23 three-pointers and came up with four steals, posting his highest scoring output since he scored 50 in a win over Orlando in January 2022.

Jayson Tatum scored 22 points and pulled down 13 rebounds and Payton Pritchard added 18 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists off the bench for the Celtics, who shrugged off the absence of Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday to post their biggest points total of the season.

Tyrese Haliburton scored 19 points and Bennedict Mathurin scored 18 for the Pacers, who were without injured Obi Toppin and Andrew Nembhard.

The lopsided win over the team they vanquished in last season’s Eastern Conference finals saw the Celtics avoid their first three-game skid of the season.

It also kept them in touch with Eastern Conference leaders Cleveland, who improved their league-best record to 27-4 with a 149-135 victory over the Denver Nuggets.

Donovan Mitchell scored 33 points to lead six Cavaliers players in double figures as Cleveland won their sixth straight -- and their 10th in 11 games.

The Cavs drilled 23 three-pointers and led by as many as 21, withstanding a triple-double of 27 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists from Denver’s NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic.

It came down to the wire in Houston, where Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards drilled a step-back three-pointer with 23.2 seconds remaining to lift the Timberwolves to a 113-112 victory over the Rockets.

Fred VanVleet had a chance to win it for Houston, but missed a three-pointer with 1.8 seconds left.

Julius Randle scored 27 points and Edwards finished with 24 for the Timberwolves, who trailed by 16 points, 106-90, with 4:57 left to play.

Alperen Sengun led the Rockets with 38 points and 12 rebounds. Amen Thompson added 20 points as all five Houston starters scored in double figures only to come up short at the end.

The New York Knicks pushed their winning streak to six games with a convincing 108-85 victory over the Magic in Orlando.

Agence France-Presse