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The reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics crushed the Golden State Warriors 125-85 on Monday while the league's best Cleveland Cavaliers beat down the Phoenix Suns. Tatum scored 22 points with nine rebounds and seven assists before sitting out the entire fourth quarter of the Celtics' dominant victory in San Francisco.
Kristaps Porzingis added 18 points and Jaylen Brown chipped in 17 for Boston, who took full advantage of the absence of Draymond Green, the latest Warriors injury victim after he strained his left calf on Saturday. "Those are some of the tricky games in the NBA, when (teams) have some star players out, other guys get a different role," Tatum said. "We fell victim to that a couple of times this year, so (we were) just trying to lock in from the beginning."
Up by 15 at halftime, the Celtics erupted for 43 points in the third quarter. Stephen Curry scored 18 points to lead the Warriors and Moses Moody added 13 off the bench - the only Golden State players to score in double figures. It was just one of the lopsided results as the NBA marked the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday with a day-long slate of games.
In Memphis, Jaren Jackson Jr. scored 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to help the Memphis Grizzlies rally from a 16-point deficit to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 108-106. Desmond Bane added 22 points and Ja Morant scored 19 for Memphis, who were still down by five going into the fourth quarter and took their first lead of the second half on Bane's floater in the lane with 3:21 remaining. "It was ugly from the start, but we kept competing and found a way down the stretch," Bane said. Anthony Edwards scored 32 points to lead the Timberwolves but missed a potential game-winning three-pointer as time expired.
