Jayson Tatum’s 36 points lead Celtics past Kings 132-109

SACRAMENTO,Calif. (AP) — Jayson Tatum scored 36 points and the Boston Celticsended a long road trip on a high note by beating the SacramentoKings 132-109 on Tuesday night.

Bostonbounced back from blowing a 19-point lead in Utah on Saturday nightby knocking off one of the top teams in the Western Conference. Itwon four of six on the road trip.

JaylenBrown added 27 points and Derrick White scored 20 to help theCeltics open up a one-game lead over Philadelphia in the AtlanticDivision.

DomantasSabonis 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.

Sacramentofell 1 1/2 games behind Memphis in the race for second place in theWestern Conference. The Kings are trying to clinch their firstplayoff berth since 2006 — the longest postseason drought in NBAhistory.

Playingtheir fifth game in seven nights in their fourth time zone, theKings offered little defensive resistance for Boston.

The Celticsshot 53.3% from the field, turned the ball over only five times andtook control of the game during a torrid shooting stretch comingout of halftime.

Boston hit10 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 to14 points on a 3-pointer by White.

The Kingsnever really threatened after that.

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

TIP-INS

Celtics: CRobert Williams III (hamstring) returned after missing the pasteight games. He had six points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes offthe bench. He was also called for a technical foul in the thirdquarter. ... The Celtics had 22 assists before committing theirsecond turnover of the game midway through the third quarter.

Kings:Swingman Kevin Huerter (knee) missed his third straight game. ...Keegan Murray’s 3-pointer in the first quarter gave him at leastone in 33 straight games, tying the NBA rookie record held byLandry Shamet (2018-19) and Rudy Fernandez (2008-09). ... Sabonis’12 triple-doubles are second in the league this season to Denver’sNikola Jokic, who has 28.

UPNEXT

Celtics:Host Indiana on Friday night.

Kings: HostPhoenix on Friday night.