Jaylen Brown was 11-of-25 shooting on Thursday in Sacramento, leading all scorers with 29 points despite missing eight of his nine attempts from distance.
Jaylen Brown was 11-of-25 shooting on Thursday in Sacramento, leading all scorers with 29 points despite missing eight of his nine attempts from distance.Scott Marshall/Associated Press
SACRAMENTO — The Celtics were at risk of one of their worst losses of the season, tied after three quarters with the lowly Kings.
The team’s two veteran leaders, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, responded in that final period with stellar shotmaking, and the Boston defense stiffened and got stops for a 120-106 win at Golden 1 Center.
White scored all 16 of his points in the second half while Brown tallied 29 — 8 in the fourth quarter — as Boston improved to 3-1 on its season-long five-game road trip.
The Kings, mired in a slump, pushed the Celtics, using the savvy midrange mastery of DeMar DeRozan and 3-point shooting of ex-Celtic Dennis Schröder to rally from an 8-point deficit and force an 88-88 tie.
White began the fourth quarter with 5 consecutive points and Sam Hauser hit a corner triple for a 102-96 lead. Brown then attacked the basket and got to the free-throw line to help the Celtics pull away.
Payton Pritchard added 16 points while Anfernee Simons scored 14, all in the first half. Hauser, who struggled in Utah, finished with 15 points on five 3-pointers.
DeRozan, a Celtics nemesis from his Toronto days, led Sacramento with 25 points.
The Kings missed their final 15 3-pointers.
The Celtics began Thursday with little energy and allowed the Kings to get comfortable offensively, making for a long first half for the defense. The Kings, which have the third-worst scoring offense in the NBA, shot 55.6 percent in the first half and made 8 of 16 3-point attempts.
Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.