Brown, Tatum combine for 64 points in Celtics win over Cavs

BOSTON (AP) — Jaylen Brown matched his career high with 34 points, Jayson Tatum had 24 of his 30 points in the opening half and the Boston Celtics cruised to their fifth straight victory, 129-117 over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday.

Enes Kanter added 14 points and Kemba Walker had 13 for Boston, which improved to 13-1 at home.

Brown posted the first consecutive 30-point games of his career. He had 30 in a Christmas Day win at Toronto.

Kevin Love equaled his season high with 30 points and had seven rebounds for the Cavaliers, who had won their last three games and four of six. Collin Sexton added 21 points.

The

Celtics

only

trailed

in

the opening minutes halftime.

Boston closed the first quarter by scoring the final seven points, taking a 33-22 lead into the break after Tatum’s 3-pointer with 4.9 seconds left.

The Celtics then had a 10-0 spree midway through the second, turning a 12-point lead to 48-26 on Tatum’s

and

led

62-47

at step-back 3 from the right wing.

After intermission, Boston maintained a double-digit lead for the entire third quarter, building it to 84-62 on Kanter’s layup midway in before Love helped the Cavs slice it to 92-81 after three.

Cleveland finally got its deficit into single digits early in the fourth, but Boston put it away when Brown nailed consecutive 3s from the left wing 25 seconds apart that made it 108-90 with just over seven minutes to play.

TIP-INS

Celtics: Marcus Smart missed his eighth straight game with an eye infection. Boston coach Brad Stevens said before the game that Smart hasn’t been ruled out for Saturday yet.