BOSTON – Jayson Tatum posted his fifth straight 30-point game, leading the Boston Celtics with 41 en route to a 139-118 Christmas Day win over the visiting Milwaukee Bucks in a showdown of the National Basketball Association’s two top clubs on Sunday night.

Tatum and Jaylen Brown (29 points) combined for 70 points in a game for the eighth time in their careers.

Tatum added seven rebounds, five assists and three steals as Boston won back-to-back games. They improved to 24-10 and stretched their Eastern Conference lead over the Bucks (22-11).

“They are one of the best teams in the league and it’s always special to play on Christmas,” Tatum said. “We just wanted to give our fans a present today and come out of here with a victory.”

He scored 20 points in the third quarter on 7-of-10 shooting – the entire Bucks team outscored Tatum by only five in the period – as the Celtics boosted their 62-61 half-time lead to 100-86 entering the fourth quarter.

Joe Ingles hit a running three-pointer, as Milwaukee closed to nine early in the fourth but Williams bookended a 10-0 Celtics run with three-pointers to make it 110-91.

Brown later scored 10 straight points to help put the game out of reach.

“We wanted to come out in the second half, especially at the start of that third quarter, with some pace and some energy,” Tatum said.

He delivered the most spectacular hoop of the game with a slam dunk over Milwaukee star big man Giannis Antetokounmpo, who finished with 27 points and nine rebounds but no blocked shots.

“You’ve got to attack the rim,” Tatum said. “If you go in there and lay it up, he’s going to send it to the parking lot.”

He has shone in clashes with fellow superstars. He had 39 against Ja Morant and the Grizzlies, 37 against Luka Doncic and the Mavericks, 35 against Joel Embiid and the 76ers, and 34 against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets.

He also scored 29 against Kevin Durant and the Nets and 25 against Devin Booker and the Suns.

Earlier in December, he dropped 44 points on LeBron James and Anthony Davis in Los Angeles.

“Those match-ups are fun,” Tatum said. “You get to play against the other best players and it just raises your level of play.

“The competition is exciting but that’s the game that you live for, the moments, the match-ups.

“If you can’t get up for those games, then you’re probably in the wrong profession.”

Derrick White, Grant Williams and Al Horford also scored in double figures, helping Boston shoot 19 of 39 from three-point range. Marcus Smart handed out eight assists.

Jrue Holiday finished with 23, Brook Lopez scored 16 and Massachusetts native Pat Connaughton added 15 on four three-pointers in Milwaukee’s third straight loss.

Bobby Portis pulled in nine rebounds and Holiday also dished out seven assists. REUTERS, AFP

In earlier matches, Joel Embiid and James Harden combined to spark Philadelphia’s 119-112 NBA triumph at New York while Luka Doncic powered Dallas over the Los Angeles Lakers.

Cameroonian star Embiid struck for 35 points and eight rebounds while Harden delivered 29 points and 13 assists in the 76ers’ eighth consecutive victory.

Philadelphia improved to 20-12, fifth in the Eastern Conference, and stretched the lead over the sixth-place Knicks (18-16) despite Julius Randle’s 35 points for New York, losers of three straight games.

The Knicks led by as many as 14 points in the first half but the Sixers stayed close and Georges Niang hit four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to help ignite Philadelphia.

New York’s Jalen Brunson scored 23 points and added 11 assists before leaving with an apparent right hip injury in the fourth quarter.

At Dallas, the host Mavericks got 32 points, nine rebounds and nine assists from Slovenian star Doncic in downing the Lakers 124-115 while Christian Wood added 30 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

The Mavericks were down 54-43 at half time before outscoring the Lakers 51-21 in the third quarter, the only quarter Dallas outscored the Lakers.

LeBron James scored a game-high 38 points with six rebounds and five assists and Russell Westbrook added 17 points off the bench but the Lakers dropped their fourth game in a row and fell to 13-20, 13th in the Western Conference.

Anthony Davis remains sidelined with a right foot injury for the Lakers.

The Mavericks used the Christmas holiday contest as the backdrop to unveiling a statue of former Dallas great Dirk Nowitzki, the German playmaker’s bronze image captured making a fadeaway jumper.

Nowitzki led Dallas to the 2011 NBA crown and was the NBA Most Valuable Player in 2007.