Celtics survive Trail Blazers' fourth-quarter rally as Tatum leads with 34 points

Jayson Tatum shrugged off a bad performance in Celtics loss to Milwaukee Bucks last Friday, July 31, 2020, to lead Boston past the Portland Trail Blazers, 128-124, on the fourth day of competition inside the NBA bubble at the Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

Tatum did not only led the Celtics with 34 points but he also had eight assists, a career-high.

Also chipping in 30 points for the win was Jaylen Brown.

Boston was leading for much of the ballgame and even had a 24-point advantage just in the second quarter.

But the Trail Blazers caught up in the final canto which they opened with 15-4 run on five three-pointers, three of which were sunk by Damian Lillard and the remaining two by CJ McCollum.

The 15-4 run gave Portland the lead at 101-98. However, Boston was not about to concede the game easily and sparked a rally of their own, a 7-0 run to take back the lead, 125-119, with 30 seconds left in the ballgame.

Carmelo Anthony's trey allowed Portland to come close at just three points behind.

With just 3.4 seconds left, Jusuf Nurkic further cut Boston's lead to just one but Gordon Hayward allowed the Celtics to pull away.

Boston's victory was sealed when Nurkic's long inbound pass went out of bounds.

Lillard had 30 points and 16 assists while Nurkic also had 30 points but for a losing cause.

Rockets tamed Bucks

Another notable game was how the Houston Rockets fixed their defense and were able to get past the Milwaukee Bucks, 120-116.

The Rockets plan hinged on winning three battles on the court, the battle for three points, the battle for free throws and the battle for turnovers. And, these they were able to execute that well and came away with the win. A win that had them bombing a total of 21 three-pointers.

Aside from the Celtics and the Rockets, other teams that tallied wins were Brooklyn Nets who trounced Washington Wizards, 118-110; San Antonio Spurs who squeaked past Memphis Grizzlies, 108-106; Orlando Magic who thrashed Sacramento Kings, 132-116; and the Phoenix Suns who edged Dallas Mavericks, 117-115.

Image credit courtesy of Erik Drost/Flickr