Jayson Tatum had a game high 41 points and Jaylen Brown added 30 on Monday night, leading the Boston Celtics to a 140-129 overtime victory over the Charlotte Hornets at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Charlotte led by as many as 10 in the first quarter, but Boston came back to even things 33-33 at the end of the opening 12 minutes. A back and forth second quarter saw the Celtics taking a slight lead to the break 68-66. Neither team led by more than six in the third, and it was the home standing Hornets taking a 97-94 advantage to the fourth quarter, in trying to improve on a franchise best 3-0 start to the season. It looked like they were on the way to doing so when they used a 13-2 run to take a lead of 114-102 with 6:06 to play in regulation. Boston (2-2) rallied back however and an alley-oop dunk by Robert Williams III finished off a 18-5 run by the C’s to take a 120-119 edge with 1:42 left. LaMelo Ball made a stepback three-pointer 12 seconds later to give the Hornets the lead back, before Tatum tied it with two free throws. After a missed three-pointer by Marcus Smart with 27.4 seconds remaining, Charlotte had a chance for the win. Smart redeemed himself with a steal and setting up a Celtics chance for victory with 11.3 seconds showing on the clock, but after a timeout they lost control of the ball into the backcourt and never got a shot off in time as the game went to overtime.
After Boston scored the first four points of the extra session, Charlotte (3-1) scored the next seven in a row for a 129-126 lead. The Celtics though finished the last 2:55 of overtime on a 14-0 run to take the win that included three-pointers by Dennis Schroder, Brown, a dunk by Brown on a fastbreak, and a combined 6-6 from the line between Schroder and Tatum to finish it off. Tatum added seven rebounds and eight assists to his game high point total. Brown added nine rebounds, three assists, and three steals to his 30 points on the night. Schroder finished with 23 points, six rebounds, and eight assists, while Jabari Parker had 13 points and Williams III had a double double with 12 points and 16 rebounds. Ball had 25 points, five rebounds, and nine assists and Miles Bridges also had 25 points and added 10 rebounds in the loss for Charlotte. Boston returns home to host the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night at 7:30.
