Jaylen Brown scored 35 points and had nine rebounds to propel the Boston Celtics to a 113-102 victory over the visiting Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday night.
Boston (54-25) received 23 points from Jayson Tatum and 12 from Neemias Queta, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard. The Celtics have won four straight and 11 of their last 13 games.
LeMelo Ball tossed in a game-high 36 points for Charlotte, but he failed to score in the fourth quarter. The Hornets (43-37) were held to 15 points in the fourth.
Brandon Miller added 20 points for Charlotte, which had its four-game winning streak come to an end. Boston won two of the three regular-season meetings with Charlotte.
Charlotte’s Coby White didn’t play in the game because of left groin soreness. White is averaging 15.7 points per game in 19 games since the Hornets acquired him in a trade with Chicago in February.
It was 18-18 with 5:25 remaining in the opening quarter before the Hornets closed the quarter with a 13-2 run to take a 31-20 advantage entering the second. Boston erased its deficit and took a 51-49 lead after a Jordan Walsh 3-pointer with 3:54 remaining in the half, but Charlotte held a 61-55 halftime lead.
Ball scored 23 of his 36 points in the first half, when the Hornets made 13 of 31 3-point attempts (41.9%).
Boston went up 75-74 on a Walsh layup with 6:09 left in the third, but Charlotte again answered by scoring 10 of the next 12 points to take a seven-point lead. The Celtics scored the final 10 points in the third to lead 90-87 with 12 minutes to play.
Another 10-0 spurt gave the Celtics a 106-94 lead with 5:48 left in regulation, and Boston’s advantage never fell below eight points after that.
Charlotte was 3 of 18 from 3-point territory (16.7%) in the second half.
