NBA Night Shift: Tatum’s OT Winner and Portland’s Statement in L.A.

Tuesday’s NBA slate only had four games, and it still felt crowded. Boston needed overtime and a buzzer jumper. Portland stayed perfect by surviving Luka Dončić’s 41. The defending champion Knicks finally won. San Antonio finally looked like a home team. By the time the West Coast tipped, the night already had a clear theme: early-season NBA storylines stopped being polite.

Here is how the night broke.

Celtics 125 – 124 Nets (OT): Tatum ends it at the horn

Boston’s third straight win arrived the hard way. Jayson Tatum buried a 17-foot jumper at the overtime buzzer to finish a 40-point night and push the Celtics past Brooklyn 125-124 at TD Garden. The final sequence capped a game that never let either side breathe. There were 10 lead changes and 15 ties, and neither team led by more than eight.

Tatum went 10-of-20 from the field and 18-of-22 from the line, adding eight assists without a turnover in 42 minutes. Paul George scored 20 with seven rebounds and seven assists. Derrick White added 16, including the late regulation dunk-and-one that briefly put Boston ahead 114-111 after Tatum found him slipping behind the defense.

Brooklyn played like anything but an 0-4 team for most of the night. Michael Porter Jr had 27 points and 12 rebounds. Julius Randle scored 24. The Nets’ bench kept pouring in points, and rookie Mikel Brown Jr. became the game’s secondary headline. Brown drilled a tying three with two-tenths of a second left in regulation after Mitchell Robinson missed a pair of free throws with three seconds on the clock. In overtime, Brown missed a layup with 2.3 seconds left, and Tatum made him pay at the other end.

The Celtics improved to 3-1 and have not lost since blowing a 22-point lead in their opener at Detroit. The Nets fell to 0-4, still searching for a win despite competitive nights and real production from Porter and Randle. Boston hosts Chicago on Friday. Brooklyn hosts Detroit the same night.

Knicks 111 – 97 Pistons: New York gets win No. 1

The defending champions finally exhaled. New York beat previously undefeated Detroit 111-97 at Madison Square Garden and avoided what would have been a historic 0-4 start for a title team. The Knicks had opened 0-3 after losses to Philadelphia, Boston, and Orlando, becoming the first defending NBA champion to start 0-3 since the 2011-12 Dallas Mavericks.

Karl-Anthony Towns made the night physical. He scored 27 points and grabbed 20 rebounds, including eight on the offensive glass. Jalen Brunson added 23 points and seven assists after a rough shooting first half. Josh Hart finished with only six points but five steals, four assists, and the connective defense that makes New York look like itself. Mikal Bridges hit four threes for 12 points. OG Anunoby stuffed the margins with 13 points, seven rebounds, two steals, and two blocks.

The game turned in the third quarter. New York outscored Detroit 37-13 in the period, flipping a tight night into a statement. Cade Cunningham had 19 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists for the Pistons, and Paul Reed scored 22 with nine boards in an expanded role, but Detroit could not survive the avalanche after halftime. The Pistons fell to 3-1. The Knicks moved to 1-3 and looked, for one quarter at least, like the spring version of the roster that won the title.

Trail Blazers 136 – 129 Lakers: Portland stays perfect

If Tatum and the knicks owned the East Coast drama, Portland owned the West Coast statement. The Trail Blazers beat the Lakers 136-129 at Crypto.com Arena and moved to 3-0, the franchise’s second such start in 15 years under new coach Micah Nori.

Ja Morant and Deni Avdija scored 23 apiece. Damian Lillard added 21 and hit the dagger three with 43 seconds left. Jrue Holiday scored 22. The Blazers’ balance was the point. Four players cleared 20, the ball moved, and nobody needed a 40-point rescue for the night to hold.

Luka Dončić almost provided one anyway. He finished with 41 points and nine assists, his second massive scoring night in a row after a 52-point explosion in Utah. Austin Reaves scored 26. Sandro Mamukelashvili added 17. Los Angeles led early, survived an 11-lead-change scrap, and still could not stop Portland’s closing 15-8 run. Morant’s midrange makes put the Blazers up five late. Lillard’s fourth three of the night closed it.

For Portland, this was the legitimacy test after the opening blowout of Phoenix. Beating a Lakers team that entered 3-0, on the road, with Dončić cooking, is a different kind of evidence. The Blazers host Memphis on Thursday. The Lakers, now 3-1, visit the Clippers next.

Spurs 130 – 103 Kings: San Antonio’s first home win arrives loudly

San Antonio needed a home reset after opening losses to Oklahoma City and Houston. The Spurs got one in a 130-103 demolition of Sacramento, their highest offensive output of the young season and the first Frost Bank Center win of 2026-27.

Victor Wembanyama led it with 29 points and 10 rebounds on 14-of-21 shooting, adding five blocks and matching a career high with nine dunks. Julian Champagnie exploded for 26 points on 8-of-13 shooting from three, burying eight threes before halftime and tying his own franchise record for makes in a half. Devin Vassell added 14 points and eight assists. Dylan Harper had 13 points, six rebounds, and six assists. All five starters finished in double figures.

The first half decided the mood. San Antonio scored 39 in the opening quarter and 80 by the break, shooting the Kings off the floor with paint pressure from Wembanyama and wave after wave of threes. Sacramento got 24 from De’Andre Hunter, 22 from Zach LaVine, and a 20-14-8 line from Domantas Sabonis, and still never found an answer. The Kings fell to 0-4. The Spurs moved to 2-2 and head to Utah next looking a lot more like the home team their October schedule asked them to be.

What Tuesday’s NBA slate leaves behind

Four games produced four different kinds of proof. Boston showed it can win the ugly ones again. Portland showed the remade Big Three can travel. New York showed the championship core still has a punch when Towns owns the glass. San Antonio showed that Wembanyama plus wing shooting can still turn a building around in one half.

The standings after the night are just as loud. Portland sits alone at 3-0 among Tuesday’s winners. Houston, Oklahoma City, and Memphis remain 4-0 above them in the West. The Heat and Nets are still winless. The Knicks are no longer in that club. And the Lakers, for the first time this season, know what a loss feels like.

The Takeaway: Tuesday’s NBA night belonged to Tatum’s overtime heroics and Portland’s balanced road statement, with the Knicks’ first win and San Antonio’s home breakout filling out a slate that already feels bigger than October noise.

FAQs

What were the NBA scores from last night?

Celtics 125, Nets 124 (OT); Knicks 111, Pistons 97; Spurs 130, Kings 103; Trail Blazers 136, Lakers 129.

Who hit the game-winning shot for Boston?

Jayson Tatum hit a 17-foot jumper at the overtime buzzer to finish with 40 points in Boston’s 125-124 win.

Did the Trail Blazers stay undefeated?

Yes. Portland improved to 3-0 with a 136-129 win over the Lakers despite 41 points from Luka Dončić.

How did the Knicks get their first win?

New York beat Detroit 111-97 behind Karl-Anthony Towns’ 27 points and 20 rebounds and a 37-13 third quarter.

Who led the Spurs against Sacramento?

Victor Wembanyama had 29 points and 10 rebounds, while Julian Champagnie scored 26 with eight threes in a 130-103 win.