BOSTON — Jayson Tatum scored 16 of his 33 points in the second half and the Boston Celtics held off the Orlando Magic 116-100 on Wednesday night.
Gordon Hayward added 23 points and Jaylen Brown finished with 18 to help the Celtics win their fifth straight.
Orlando pulled within 105-98 with less than three minutes to play on a basket by Nik Vucevic. The Celtics responded with back-to-back 3-pointers by Hayward and Tatum that made it 111-98 with 1:46 left.
Evan Fournier led the Magic with 26 points. Aaron Gordon added 23 points and 10 rebounds. Terrence Ross finished with 18 points. Orlando lost for the sixth time in seven games.
After being held to three points in the third quarter, Tatum scored 10 straight points to give Boston a 99-91 lead with 6:52 remaining. Then, following a timeout, Tatum led a fast break and found Brown, who threw down a one-handed dunk over Michael Carter-Williams to give the Celtics the game’s first double-digit advantage.
Boston played extremely short-handed with Kemba Walker (sore left knee), Marcus Smart (right quad contusion), Daniel Theis (right ankle sprain) and Robert Williams (left hip edema) all sitting out. Rookie Romeo Langford made his first-career start in Walker’s absence.
The Magic took an early 12-5 lead in the first quarter before the Celtics closed the quarter on a 27-12 run.
Tatum was sidelined with a groin strain for Boston’s win at Orlando last month. But he picked up the offensive load for the Celtics early, scoring 17 points in the first half as Boston took a 57-56 lead into halftime.
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