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Foul-plagued Tatum propels Celtics past Kings
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"We had too many turnovers, unforced turnovers,” Kings coach Mike Brown said

Jayson Tatum scored 30 points as Boston Celtics pulled away from the Sacramento Kings for a 122-104 victory on Friday night.

With just over four minutes remaining in the third period, Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart all had four fouls but the Celtics took over from there, beginning with a 16-0 flurry to end the third quarter.

“I said during one of the timeouts that we can’t expect everything to go our way all the time,” Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said. “We’re going to be down six in the third quarter sometimes and that’s OK.”

Brown added 25 points and Derrick White had 16 for Boston, who won 11 of their last 12 games. Al Horford finished with 13 points, and Tatum had eight rebounds.

“We just needed some energy,” Brown said. “There are games like that where the officiating kind of slows the game up, a lot of calls. We were looking for something to give us a little bit of a spark.”

De’Aaron Fox led Sacramento, who have lost two straight after a seven-game winning streak, with 20 points. Domantas Sabonis scored 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Davion Mitchell added 13.

“I felt we had too many turnovers, unforced turnovers,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “To have 18 on the road against the best team in the NBA for 27 points is hard to overcome. Situations like this, if the ball’s not going in, you’ve got to be good with the basketball.”