Jaylen Brown tossed in a game-high 31 points and added nine rebounds to help the Boston Celtics overcome a 20-point deficit and defeat the visiting Indiana Pacers 103-95 Monday night.
Indiana, which led by 20 early in the third quarter, was held to 34 points in the second half and 13 points in the fourth quarter.
The Celtics received 19 points from Derrick White and a game-high 11 rebounds from rookie Hugo Gonzalez.
Pascal Siakam tallied 25 points for Indiana and Andrew Nembhard contributed 20. Bennedict Mathurin added 16 points and nine rebounds for Indiana, which has lost five in a row.
Boston forward Jordan Walsh did not play because of an illness that also prevented him from playing in the second half of Saturday’s 112-96 victory over Toronto. Walsh is averaging 7.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game this season.
Indiana led 30-18 after an Ethan Thompson 3-pointer with 4:25 left in the opening quarter. It was the last of eight straight 3-point shots the Pacers made in the quarter. Boston scored the next eight points, but Indiana led 35-26 after 12 minutes.
The Pacers held a 61-41 lead — their largest lead of the first half — with 1:22 remaining in the second quarter. Indiana made 12 of 30 3-point attempts in the first half and led 61-43 entering the third.
Boston coach Joe Mazzulla pulled his starters early in the third, and Boston whittled Indiana’s lead to six points, 74-68, on an Anfernee Simons 3-pointer with 3:15 left in the third.
The Pacers led 82-74 after three quarters, but misfired on 11 of their 12 3-point attempts in the stanza.
The Celtics took their first lead in the second half on a Brown reverse layup that put Boston in front 85-84 with 7:19 to play.
With the score tied at 91, the hosts outscored their guests, 10-0, capped by a White driving layup with 41.7 seconds remaining.
The Pacers missed 19 of their 20 3-point attempts in the second half.
Boston outscored Indiana 52-28 in the paint.
The two squads will meet again Friday in Indiana.
Pelicans surge in 4th, dump Mavs for 5th straight win
Zion Williamson compiled 24 points and nine rebounds off the bench, helping the streaking New Orleans Pelicans rally for a 119-113 victory over the visiting Dallas Mavericks on Monday.
Derik Queen added 19 points, 11 rebounds and six assists for the Pelicans, who won their fifth straight game — their longest winning-streak since March 2023.
Saddiq Bey scored 19 points while Jordan Poole had 14 and Jeremiah Fears chipped in 12 for New Orleans, which outscored Dallas 40-26 in the fourth quarter. Trey Murphy III totaled 11 points and four steals in the win.
Anthony Davis’ 35 points and 17 rebounds led Dallas, while Klay Thompson scored 20 points and Cooper Flagg tallied 16. Naji Marshall poured in 15 points for the Mavericks, who dropped their third game in four tries.
After holding a six-point halftime advantage, Dallas grew its lead to 10 on Davis’ dunk with 8:16 remaining in the third.
New Orleans pulled within four as Jose Alvarado’s back-to-back 3-pointers forced Dallas’ timeout with 1:58 left in the third quarter. The Mavericks scored the last four points of the third to take an 87-79 lead into the fourth.
After Brandon Williams’ layup gave Dallas a 98-92 lead, Bey’s three-point play and Poole’s 3-pointer tied the game at the 6:55 mark of the fourth. Following a Dallas timeout, Murphy’s triple gave the Pelicans their first lead since the second quarter.
Flagg split a pair of free throws to tie the score at 103 before Williamson scored six points during a 10-0 Pelicans run. Williamson subsequently hit two foul shots and a layup, pushing the margin to 11 with 1:37 remaining.
Herb Jones’ mid-range jumper and Queen’s reverse layup gave the Pelicans a 22-11 midway through the opening quarter.
Poole’s basket extended New Orleans’ edge to 34-23 before Thompson scored seven points in an 11-0 Dallas run. The Pelicans led 36-34 after the first quarter.
Dallas took its first two-possession lead with 4:48 left in the first half when Daniel Gafford’s dunk gave the Mavericks a 54-50 advantage.
Davis scored six straight Dallas points, including a 3-pointer with just under a minute left to give the Mavericks a 63-54 lead.
Williamson’s dunk with 4.7 seconds remaining trimmed the Pelicans’ halftime deficit to 63-57.
Nuggets match
team mark with 24 treys, crush Jazz
Jamal Murray scored 27 points for the host Denver Nuggets, who opened the game with a 19-0 run on their way to a 135-112 win over the Utah Jazz on Monday night.
Nikola Jokic contributed 14 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists for the Nuggets, who shot 24-for-46 from deep to tie a franchise record for made 3-pointers.
Tim Hardaway Jr. had 21 points off the Denver bench, hitting 6 of 11 from long range. Peyton Watson scored 20 points in his return from a two-game injury absence, and Cameron Johnson also had 20 points on 6-for-6 shooting from deep. Murray made 6 of 12 3-point attempts.
Bruce Brown scored 15 points while Jonas Valanciunas added 12 points and 11 rebounds as Denver won for the seventh time in eight games.
Utah endured a similarly cold start on Dec. 5, falling behind 23-0 to the New York Knicks.
The Los Angeles Lakers have the record for most consecutive points to open an NBA game with 29, which they did against the Sacramento Kings on Feb. 4, 1987.
Lauri Markkanen scored 27 points for Utah, which lost its third game in a row. Keyonte George finished with 20 points and seven assists and Jusuf Nurkic had 17 points and 14 rebounds. Brice Sensabaugh put up 14 points.
The Nuggets hit seven of their first nine shots, five from deep, while Utah missed its first 10 from the field and turned it over twice. Sensabaugh finally broke the drought with a 3-pointer, but Denver went on a 14-2 run to lead 33-5 with 4:42 left in the first quarter.
The Jazz scored eight straight points, but the Nuggets held a 40-15 lead after the first quarter.
Johnson hit a 3-pointer to make it 48-20 early in the second quarter. However, Utah outscored Denver 31-29 in the period and trailed 69-46 at intermission.
The Nuggets led 94-67 after a running 3-pointer by Murray with 4:20 left in the third quarter before the Jazz used a 12-2 run to get within 17. Denver scored the next seven points, but Sensabaugh’s dunk cut the deficit to 103-84 heading into the fourth.
Nurkic’s tip-in with 10:07 left made it 105-88, but Hardaway hit a trio of 3-pointers to put the Nuggets ahead by 26.
Thunder brush aside Grizzlies, maintain perfect home mark
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points as Oklahoma City remained the NBA’s only team with a perfect home record, as the Thunder posted a 119-103 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday.
The Thunder improved to 14-0 at home while shake off a season-worst run of two losses in three games. The Grizzlies have dropped back-to-back games and three of their past five.
Oklahoma City seemingly took control with a 12-2 run that started late in the third quarter and bled into the fourth, and they stretched their lead as high as 18 less than two minutes into the final quarter.
But Memphis didn’t go away, cutting the deficit to four on Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s 3-pointer with less than six minutes remaining.
The Thunder immediately answered with back-to-back 3-pointers from Gilgeous-Alexander and Branden Carlson to push the lead back to 10. That stretch eventually ballooned to a 14-2 run in which Gilgeous-Alexander had seven points and a pair of assists to virtually put the game away with less than two minutes remaining.
Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 10 rebounds, eight assists and four steals.
Jalen Williams added 24 points for Oklahoma City, while Ajay Mitchell scored 16 off the bench.
Oklahoma City typically uses a two-big starting lineup with 7-footers Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein. However, with Holmgren out due to illness and Hartenstein sidelined because of right soleus soreness, Carlson made his first career start. He finished with 11 points in 25 minutes.
The Thunder also were without Alex Caruso, Aaron Wiggins and Ousmane Dieng.
The Grizzlies were plenty short-handed themselves, with Ja Morant missing his third consecutive game with a left ankle sprain, Brandon Clarke out with a right calf strain just two games after making his season debut, and John Konchar and Zach Edey remaining out.
Caldwell-Pope and Cedric Coward scored 16 each to lead Memphis.
After a tight first quarter, the Thunder led by as many as 17 in the second thanks to their defense.
Oklahoma City scored 12 points off seven Memphis turnovers in the second, helped by four steals in the quarter from Kenrich Williams.
Williams wound up with 11 points, six rebounds, four steals and three assists.
The Thunder outscored the Grizzlies 56-28 in the paint and scored 31 points off Memphis’ 23 turnovers.