Celtics continue to roll, hold off Kings 128-119

After coming off one of their most exciting, and certainly their most impressive win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night, the Celtics came out on fire in their Sunday afternoon 128-119 win over the Sacramento Kings. Boston came out and shot a sizzling 58.1 percent from the field and put up a league-high 46 points in the first quarter. The team showed no letdown after their come-from-behind win in Cleveland and had the Garden rocking for the entire afternoon.

While the scoring outburst was greatly appreciated by the home crowd, the C's defense gave up 37 points of their own. Instead of having a 40-minute shoot-out on Super Bowl Sunday, the C's clamped down on the defensive end and started to extend their lead. After allowing just 21 points to the Kings in the second quarter, the Celtics went into the halftime break with a 74-58 lead.

The Celtics seemed a bit lackadaisical coming out of the break and the Kings closed the gap to just six points after being down by 20+ early in the third quarter. Boston's offense hit a bit of a snag mid-way through the quarter and the Kings started to knock down shots. Turnovers were a problem throughout the game, 18 of them through three quarters, but the C's were able to stem the tide with some timely buckets from Tyler Zeller at the end of the third.

The Kings were able to keep the game close early in the fourth, but were never able to get over the hump with their comeback attempt. Avery Bradley's hot shooting carried over from the first half to the fourth quarter, where he had eight points in a two-minute stretch to open up the lead.

Bradley finished the game with a team-high 25 points and shot 6-7 from three-point range. Jared Sullinger had 17 of his 21 points in the first half and Zeller continued his hot stretch, finishing the game with 17 points and seven rebounds. Isaiah Thomas had a slow shooting game, but finished with 22 points, nine assists, four boards and two steals and sealed the win with some timely shots down the line on the 27th birthday.

DeMarcus Cousins finished with a game-high 31 points and old friend Rajon Rondo added 14 points and 15 rebounds.

Photo Credit: Steven Senne/AP Photo
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