Sam Hauser scored a career-high 26 points and the Boston Celtics cruised past the visiting Toronto Raptors 121-102 on Friday night.
The Celtics, who secured the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs in Wednesday’s win over Toronto, played without All-Star Jaylen Brown after he accidentally cut a finger on his shooting hand on Thursday. He also will miss Sunday’s regular-season finale against Atlanta but expects to be ready to go in time for the start of the postseason.
Pascal Siakim led Toronto with 19 points, and Precious Achiuwa added 16 points and seven rebounds.
The Raptors entered Friday with a chance to improve their seeding for the play-in tournament. But the loss locks them into ninth. They will host 10th-seeded Chicago on Wednesday.
Tatum scored 15 points in the opening quarter and the Celtics ended it with a 34-16 advantage.
The lead ballooned to as many as 36 points in the second as Boston got to the rim with ease, connecting on 60 per cent (24 of 40) of its field-goal attempts in the half.
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