Jaylen Brown scored 44 points as the NBA champion Boston Celtics responded to back-to-back losses with a 142-105 victory over the Indiana Pacers.
Jayson Tatum contributed 22 points and Payton Pritchard added 18 more as Boston recorded its highest point total of the season.
This victory kept the Celtics in contact with the leaders of the Eastern Conference, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Cleveland improved its league-best record to 27 wins in 31 games – four more than the Celtics – with a 149-135 victory over the Denver Nuggets among eight games set for Friday.
Donovan Mitchell scored 33 points as six Cavaliers players reached double figures in the team’s sixth straight victory, achieved despite NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic’s triple-double of 27 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists for Denver.
Elsewhere, Anthony Edwards made a three-pointer with 23.2 seconds left to give the Minnesota Timberwolves a 113-112 victory over the host Houston Rockets, who led by 16 points with less than five minutes to play.
Jalen Brunson scored 26 points as the New York Knicks extended their winning streak to six games with a 108-85 victory over the Magic in Orlando, while Victor Wembanyama produced 19 points and seven rebounds as The San Antonio Spurs beat the Brooklyn Nets 96-87. in Brooklyn.
The Los Angeles Clippers won 102-92 against the Golden State Warriors, deprived of injured Stephen Curry.
Kyrie Irving’s 20 points helped the Dallas Mavericks beat the Phoenix Suns 98-89, and the Memphis Grizzlies recorded their eighth win in 10 by beating the New Orleans Pelicans 132-124.
Kings fire Brown; Embiid fined
The Sacramento Kings fired coach Mike Brown on Friday, less than halfway through his third season at the helm, following Thursday’s 114-113 loss to the Detroit Pistons.
The loss was Sacramento’s fifth in a row – and 18th in 31 games this season – and left the Kings in 12th place in the 15-team Western Conference.
Brown, 54, was voted NBA coach of the year after guiding the Kings to the Western Conference play-offs in his first year in 2022-23, and he signed a three-year contract extension for worth $30 million (£23.8 million). in July.
Deputy Doug Christie will act in the interim.
Also on Friday, the NBA announced it had fined Philadelphia 76ers player Joel Embiid $75,000 (£60,000) for making obscene gestures toward the Boston Celtics crowd during their Game of the Day Christmas.
Embiid was expelled from his team’s 111-106 victory against the San Antonio Spurs after confronting a referee on Tuesday.
