Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum power Celtics past Hornets in potential playoff preview

Zack Cox, Boston Herald on Apr 7, 2026

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BOSTON — The first two meetings between the Boston Celtics and Charlotte Hornets were one-sided blowouts. The rubber match was a much closer fight.

Boston trailed Charlotte by as many as 11 points Tuesday night at TD Garden before rallying to win 113-102 in a possible first-round playoff preview.

Jaylen Brown finished with 35 points and nine rebounds for the 54-25 Celtics, who lowered their magic number to clinch the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference to one. Jayson Tatum added 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting, five rebounds and four assists.

Hornets guard LaMelo Ball led all scorers with 36 points, but the Celtics held him scoreless for the final 16 minutes of regulation.

If Boston does secure the No. 2 seed, which it can do with a road win Thursday over the third-place New York Knicks, it would face the winner of the 7 vs. 8 play-in game in the opening round. Charlotte is one of several possible participants in that game, along with the Toronto Raptors, Philadelphia 76ers and Orlando Magic.

Neemias Queta (12 points, 6-of-7 shooting, five rebounds), who’s been a first-quarter force of late, accounted for four of Boston’s first seven made field goals, including three putbacks. The Celtics needed his work inside to survive a sizzling start by Ball, who poured in 13 points in the first seven minutes.

As was the case in Sunday’s win over Toronto, things went sideways for the C’s when Nikola Vucevic relieved Queta midway through the first. Tied at the time, Boston was outscored 13-2 with their second-string big on the floor and ended the quarter down 31-20. Vucevic, who returned to action Sunday against Toronto after missing a month with a fractured finger, went 0 for 3 and was whistled for an illegal screen during that stretch.

Vucevic (two points, seven rebounds, two assists, one steal) improved as the game progressed, but he finished 1 for 10 from the field and 0 for 5 from 3-point range.

Tatum scrapped with Charlotte’s starting big man, Moussa Diabate, early in the second quarter. Tatum shoved Diabate while the two jostled for position after a made Celtics basket, then jousted with him in the paint on the ensuing Hornets possession. Their altercation initially resulted in fouls on both players, but a successful Charlotte challenge changed the call to a defensive foul on Tatum.

The Celtics had another challenge go against them later in the quarter, when they were unable to overturn an out-of-bounds call against Jordan Walsh. But between those rulings, they erased the Hornets’ double-digit lead, pulling ahead 53-51 on a corner 3-pointer by Walsh.

Walsh, playing in his seventh straight game after six consecutive DNP-CDs, also had a putback dunk late in the first half. Brown scored 11 points in the quarter on two driving layups — one set up by a Ball turnover forced by Walsh — four free throws and a pull-up 3.

Rookie Hugo Gonzalez was out of Joe Mazzulla’s rotation for the fourth straight game, with the Celtics coach favoring Walsh and Baylor Scheierman as his off-the-bench wing options. Before his recent drop in playing time, which began in last Wednesday’s victory over Miami, Gonzalez had checked in before halftime in 52 consecutive games — a streak dating back to Dec. 7.

Ball’s fifth 3-pointer of the night sent Charlotte into halftime with a 61-55 lead. He then proceeded to score 11 of his team’s first 13 points of the second half, eclipsing 30 for the game with more than 20 minutes remaining.

The Celtics matched that deluge with 3-pointers by Tatum (twice), White and Brown. Queta cleaned up a Tatum miss with yet another tip-in. Walsh picked Ball’s pocket again, springing Brown for a spinning layup, then scored on a feed from Brown to put Boston back in the lead, 75-74.

Charlotte replied with an 8-0 run keyed by Brandon Miller. It had a chance to take a nine-point lead shortly thereafter, but Sion James bungled a fast-break dunk, and Scheierman hit a 3 on the ensuing possession to make it 84-80.

After ex-Celtics forward Grant Williams, who was making his first appearance at TD Garden since Boston traded him away in 2023, hit a 3-pointer in response, Payton Pritchard buried two in quick succession, one set up by a Scheierman offensive rebound.

Brown followed with a midrange fadeaway over Kon Knueppel and a full-speed buzzer-beating floater in traffic to cap a 10-0 run and put Boston up 90-87 entering the fourth.

Queta played the entire third quarter for just the second time this season, then watched from the bench as the Celtics’ lead exploded early in the fourth.

Boston broke the game open with a 16-5 run, headlined by a sequence that began with a Pritchard steal and ended with a Pritchard 3-pointer. In between, the ball moved from Derrick White, to Tatum, to Vucevic, back to White and back to Pritchard, who received the drive-and-kick pass and canned a shot that made it 101-94.

Consecutive makes by Tatum and Brown stretched the lead to double digits, and the Hornets had no response. Boston held Charlotte to six points over the final five minutes.

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