Jayson Tatum hit for 29 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as the visiting Boston Celtics easily handled the San Antonio Spurs 121-111 on Saturday while producing their season-best eighth straight victory.
The Celtics (55-19) dominated San Antonio throughout, leading by 12 points at halftime, by 17 late in the third quarter and 94-81 and heading into the final period.
Boston did more than enough to get to the finish line, never letting the Spurs closer than seven points while building on its league-best road record (31-7) and drawing to within four games of idle Cleveland for the best record in the Eastern Conference with eight contests left in the regular season.
Jrue Holiday added 21 points for Boston, which also got 15 points and 16 rebounds off the bench from Luke Kornet, 14 points from Jaylen Brown, 13 from Derrick White and 11 points each from Sam Houser and Kristaps Porzingis.
Reserve Keldon Johnson paced San Antonio with 23 points. Stephon Castle added 22 points, Jeremy Sochan had 18, Devin Vassell 14, Harrison Barnes 13 and Chris Paul 12 for the Spurs (31-42).
San Antonio dropped its third consecutive outing and fell further off the pace for the final play-in spot in the West, four and a half games behind 10th-place Sacramento with nine outings remaining. Saturday’s game was the first of a home back-to-back for the Spurs, who host Golden State on Sunday.
The Celtics took charge in the opening minutes and settled for a 36-27 advantage after 12 minutes of play.
San Antonio trimmed its deficit to 49-45 on a Johnson three-point play early in the second quarter. Holiday and Tatum then scored in the final 46 seconds to allow the Celtics to carry a 64-52 lead to the break.
Holiday led the Celtics with 16 points before halftime while Tatum had 12 and Porzingis added 11. Castle’s 13 points paced San Antonio in the half, with Johnson adding a dozen off the bench and Sochan hitting for 11. San Antonio had no turnovers in the first half.
San Antonio pared its deficit to 68-61 as Barnes poured in a 3-pointer with 7:36 to play in the third quarter. The Celtic were undaunted, building their advantage to 17 points on Baylor Scheierman’s trey at the 2:50 mark.
