Boston’s Jayson Tatum drives to the basket against Brooklyn’s Dennis Smith Jr. during Wednesday’s game in Boston. Charles Krupa/Associated Press
BOSTON — Payton Pritchard scored 28 points and the NBA-leading Boston Celtics routed the Brooklyn Nets 136-86 on Wednesday night to give Coach Joe Mazzulla his 100th victory as head coach.
Derrick White finished with 27 points. Jayson Tatum added 20 points, nine assists and seven rebounds for the Celtics, who beat the Nets on back-to-back nights and for the fourth time this season in both teams’ final game before the All-Star break.
Boston will enter it with an NBA-best 43-12 record. The Celtics went 57-25 in Mazzulla’s first year as coach last season. Wednesday marked the fifth 50-point win in team history.
Trendon Watford had 15 points for the Nets, losers of five of their last six. They trailed by as many as 56 points in the fourth quarter.
The Celtics played without All-Star Jaylen Brown (bruised right shoulder) and Al Horford (sprained big toe). But they controlled the game throughout, quickly jumping out to a double-digit lead and building a 37-point lead in the second quarter. It grew to 46 points in the third. Boston’s starters sat the entire final period.
The Nets did see a player return from injury for the second straight night, this time getting back Cam Johnson following his four-game absence with a strained adductor muscle. He came off the bench, entering for the first time late in the first quarter. He played 18 minutes and finished with four points on 1-of-5 shooting.
Johnson’s presence wasn’t nearly enough to slow down a Boston team that shot more than 64% in the opening period and connected on 22 of 44 of its 3-pointers for the game.
Boston’s 68-32 halftime lead was its largest since Jan. 13, 2010, when it had a 36-point edge over the New Jersey Nets. Brooklyn’s 34 points Wednesday marked a season-low in the first half.
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