The bosses stay the course. The top three in the Eastern Conference standings, Boston, Milwaukee and Cleveland, all won on Sunday.
Deprived of their leader Jayson Tatum (ankle) for the first time this season, the Celtics, at home, relied on his lieutenant, Jaylen Brown (36 points), to dominate Washington (130-121) who reduced the note in the last quarter tackled with twenty-five points behind.
The Boston dolphin, Milwaukee, chained a fourth victory in a row also at home, against Dallas (124-115) with a big success (55.8%, 17 of 37 from three points) in the wake of Giannis Antetokounmpo (30 points).
Before the break, long-range specialist Grayson Allen had shot 100% from behind the 7.23m line (7 of 7), tying the record for winning shots without missing in a half for 25 years according to NBA statisticians. . He then failed (7 out of 8 in the end for 25 units). Despite a good general success (51%), Dallas could not compete with the former NBA champions and conceded a second defeat in a row after falling to Toronto (100-105) on Saturday. Luka Doncic (27 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists) multiplied again to try to contain the Bucks but the Slovenian star also lost six balls. Frank Ntilikina (1 interception) was used in the last three minutes in place of Doncic while Milwaukee had a fifteen-point lead.
The third in the standings, Cleveland, won on the field of poorly ranked Detroit (102-94) overflowing the Pistons in the last quarter (29-16).
In the absence of injured Cade Cunningham (tibia), the French leader Killian Hayes again delivered a good match, with 16 points (7 of 13, 2 of 5 from three points) and 8 assists in 33 minutes.