THE BOSTON Celtics shrugged off the absence of Kristaps Porzingis and Jaylen Brown to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers and claim top spot in the Eastern Conference on Wednesday.
Jayson Tatum led the Boston Celtics scoring with 29 points while Derrick White weighed in with 27 to give Boston a 117-107 victory on the road in Philadelphia.
The win saw Boston move into first place in the Eastern Conference standings at 9-2, with the Sixers falling to 8-3 in second.
“Top to bottom we’ve got a lot of guys who can do a lot of good things,” said White, who scored 14 fourth quarter points to shepherd the Celtics to victory.
“I’ve been pretty bad the past couple of games, I just wanted to go out there and compete and do what I do and make some shots,” White said.
An entertaining clash at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center saw the lead change hands 11 times, with Boston sprinting into a 17-point lead early in the second quarter.
The Sixers responded to finish the first half strongly, however, taking a 58-57 lead into the break.
But Boston hit back in the third period to outscore Philly 26-17 to take what turned out to be a decisive eight-point lead into the fourth quarter.
In other games on Wednesday, Damian Lillard dropped 37 points with 13 assists and four rebounds as the Milwaukee Bucks pounded the Toronto Raptors 128-112 on the road.
The win marked a triumphant return to Toronto for Bucks coach Adrian Griffin, the former Raptors assistant coach who joined Milwaukee in May following the sacking of Mike Budenholzer.
Milwaukee, missing the injured Giannis Antetokounmpo, controlled the game after taking the lead early in the first quarter, leading by as much as 33 points at one stage in the third quarter.
Lillard was backed with 30 points from Malik Beasley, who nailed eight three-pointers. Bobby Portis added 18 from the bench and Khris Middleton 11 as the Bucks improved to 7-4 for the season.
Scottie Barnes led Toronto’s scorers with 29 points.
- Lakers stumble -
In other games around the NBA on Wednesday, Phoenix ended Minnesota’s seven-game winning streak after Kevin Durant and Devin Booker put up 31 points apiece in a 133-115 blowout in Arizona.
The Suns erupted in the first half to outscore the Timberwolves 76-54 in a dominant performance. Phoenix coach Frank Vogel was left purring at the performance of Booker, back in the line-up after recovering from a calf injury.
“His leadership on our team is really invaluable,” Vogel said. “He was great tonight.”
In Los Angeles, LeBron James and D’Angelo Russell both posted 28 points each but it was not enough to stop the Lakers falling to a 125-110 loss to the Sacramento Kings.
The Kings led from start-to-finish to bag a fourth straight victory, behind a triple-pronged strike-force of Domantas Sabonis (29 points), Kevin Huerter and De’Aaron Fox. Huerter and Fox both finished with 28 points each.
Elsewhere Wednesday, Tim Hardaway Jr’s 31 points and 26 points from Luka Doncic helped the Dallas Mavericks complete a 130-117 rout on the road against the Washington Wizards.
In Chicago, Paolo Banchero’s last-gasp jump shot with a second remaining helped the Orlando Magic to a pulsating 96-94 victory over the Bulls.
Chicago looked to have done enough to force overtime after a brilliant three-pointer from Zach Lavine tied it up at 94-94 with eight seconds left on the clock.
But Banchero coolly drove to the basket on the final Orlando possession, spinning to shoot to make the decisive bucket.
Banchero finished with 17 points from 4-of-12 shooting in a low-scoring game. LaVine led Chicago with 19 points.
