NBA Round up - Tatum, Brown lead Celtics over Nuggets

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown finished with 30 points each as the Boston Celtics romped to a 124-104 road victory over Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets on Sunday.

Tatum and Brown spearheaded a superb all-round offensive performance for Boston, whose defense successfully bottled up the threat of Denver’s reigning NBA MVP Jokic, who was held to 23 points.

Apart from a brief spell in the first quarter, Boston led throughout, pulling clear of Denver with a 35-16 second quarter which included four three-pointers from four attempts by Payton Pritchard.

That left Boston up 68-43 at half-time and, although Denver tightened up after the interval, the result was never in doubt as Boston cruised to a third straight victory.

The Celtics improved to 44-28 with the win to remain fourth in the Eastern Conference, level on 44 wins with third-placed Milwaukee.

Denver dropped to 42-30 in the Western Conference, and are one place outside the automatic playoff places.

Elsewhere on Sunday, Philadelphia were out-hustled in a low-scoring 93-88 loss to the Toronto Raptors.

The Raptors held 76ers big man Joel Embiid to 21 points as defenses dominated at Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center.

James Harden, who finished with 17 points, gave up a late flagrant foul to end the Sixers hopes of forcing overtime.

Pascal Siakam led the Raptors scorers with 26 points.

- Booker sees Suns rise - In Sacramento, Devin Booker scored 31 points as the Western Conference-leading Phoenix Suns survived a scare before seeing off the Kings 127-124 in overtime.

Sacramento led by 14 points early in the second half against a sluggish Suns, before Booker sparked a fightback with a 19-point third quarter.

Booker's rally trimmed Sacramento's lead to just four points heading into the