On Friday, Jaylen Brown's 33 points led the league-leading Boston Celtics to a 129-102 victory over the depleted Detroit Pistons, extending the NBA's winning streak to eight games.
With teammates Jayson Tatum, Al Horford and Jrue Holiday all out, Brown expertly filled the void by making 13 of 19 from the field.
“(I) just tried to be aggressive,” Brown, who scored 30 or more points in his sixth game after the All-Star break, told NBC Sports Boston. “I know some of my friends came out.”
Brown said he tried to get his teammates involved, and although he ended up with zero assists, Celtics manager Joe Mazzula said Brown did everything right.
“He's making the shots he wants for himself and for his teammates,” Mazzula said. “He played very well-rounded basketball and was fun to watch.”
Peyton Pritchard scored 20 points and Derrick White and Crispus Porzingis each added 19 points for Boston, which improved its league record to 56-14.
Tatum missed the first game of a six-game road trip to rest his injured ankle. Horford was sidelined with a toe injury and Holiday with an arm injury.
But the Celtics were still too strong for last-place Detroit, which was missing six players after Jalen Duren was sidelined with back spasms just before tipoff.
James Wiseman made his first start of the season for the Pistons and scored a team-high 24 points.
The Celtics held Detroit's leading scorer Cade Cunningham to 15 points on 6-of-17 shooting, extending the league's longest active winning streak.
In Western Conference play, the Oklahoma City Thunder regained the conference lead with a 123-103 victory over the Raptors in Toronto.
Oklahoma City's Canadian point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 23 points, seven rebounds and eight assists, and rookie center Chet Holmgren had 18 points, 10 rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot.
The Thunder narrowly edged out the defending champion Denver Nuggets for the top spot in the West Division.
In San Antonio, the Spurs lost 99-97 to the Memphis Grizzlies despite another strong performance from Rookie of the Year candidate Victor Wembaneyama.
The towering French center scored 31 points with 16 rebounds, five assists, two steals and three blocked shots, starting the night with a 3-point shot mostly from mid-court.
The score was tied 97-97 with 18 seconds left, but Memphis' Jaren Jackson Jr. hit the winning jump shot with just over a second left.
bb/ssy
