BOSTON (AP) — Jaylen Brown scored 23 of his 32 points in the first half and the Boston Celtics rolled to a 120-99 win over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night.
Jayson Tatum added 24 points and 10 rebounds for the Celtics, who have won three straight.
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Golden State Warriors center Kristaps Porzingis (7) drives to the basket against Boston Celtics guard Ron Harper Jr. (13) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Golden State Warriors center Kristaps Porzingis (7) jokes with his former teammate Boston Celtics guard Derrick White (9) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Golden State Warriors center Kristaps Porzingis (7) blocks a shot by Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown, right, grabs a rebound against Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (23) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) blows a kiss to fans after hitting a 3-pointer against the Golden State Warriors during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
It was Tatum’s fifth time scoring at least 20 points in the six games he’s played since making his season debut following Achilles tendon surgery. It also marked his third double-double.
Golden State cut a 21-point third-quarter deficit to 11 early in the fourth, but Boston responded with a 17-6 run to push the lead back to 22 with just more than five minutes to play.
Gary Payton II and Pat Spencer both had 14 points to lead the Warriors, who have lost six of seven. They are 6-13 since star guard Stephen Curry was sidelined with a right knee injury. Draymond Green and Gui Santos scored 13 apiece.
Kristaps Porzingis, who played for the first time in TD Garden since winning a championship with Boston to cap the 2023-24 season, finished with 11 points and five rebounds.
Porzingis was traded by Atlanta to the Warriors last month and made his Golden State debut against the Celtics in San Francisco on Feb. 19. But this was his first game in Boston since the Celtics dealt him to the Hawks in July 2025.
A fan favorite during his two seasons with the Celtics, Porzingis received a standing ovation when a tribute video to him was played on the jumbotron between the first and second quarters. Several of his Warriors teammates joined in on the applause as Porzingis reciprocated.
Porzingis opened the game by blocking Tatum’s layup attempt and Neemias Queta’s putback on the Celtics’ first possession. He then scored the game’s first points, connecting on a 3-pointer.
That didn’t stop Boston from taking a 63-50 lead into halftime on the strength of a combined 39 points from Brown and Tatum.
Warriors: At Detroit on Friday night.
Celtics: At Memphis on Friday night.
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Golden State Warriors center Kristaps Porzingis (7) drives to the basket against Boston Celtics guard Ron Harper Jr. (13) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Golden State Warriors center Kristaps Porzingis (7) jokes with his former teammate Boston Celtics guard Derrick White (9) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Golden State Warriors center Kristaps Porzingis (7) blocks a shot by Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown, right, grabs a rebound against Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (23) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) blows a kiss to fans after hitting a 3-pointer against the Golden State Warriors during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government's top intelligence official told lawmakers Wednesday that Iran's regime "appears to be intact but largely degraded” yet repeatedly dodged questions about whether President Donald Trump had been warned about the fallout from the weeks-old war, including Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its effective closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz.
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, also stated in prepared remarks to the Senate Intelligence Committee that U.S. attacks on Iran last year had “obliterated” Iran's nuclear program and that there had been no effort since then to rebuild that capability.
The statement was notable given Trump's repeated assertions that a war with Iran was necessary to head off what he said was an imminent threat from the Islamic Republic. Gabbard pointedly said that conclusion was the president's alone to draw as she declined to directly answer whether the intelligence community had likewise assessed that Iran's nuclear system presented an imminent risk to the United States.
“It is not the intelligence community's responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat,” she said at one point.
Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia shot back: “It is precisely your responsibility to determine what constitutes a threat to the United States.”
The testimony came at the first of two congressional hearings held each year to offer the public a glimpse into the largely secret operations of the government's intelligence agencies and the threats they confront.
The hearings this week take place at a time of scrutiny over the war with Iran and heightened concerns about terrorism at home after recent attacks at a Michigan synagogue and a Virginia university. Wednesday's hearing also came a day after the resignation of Joe Kent as director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Kent said he could not “in good conscience” back the war and did not agree that Iran posed an imminent threat.
But the hours-long hearing offered few revelations from Gabbard, who repeatedly declined to discuss conversations with Trump, or other senior intelligence officials who testified.
“I am very disappointed,” said an exasperated Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “It's the only one time of year the public gets to hear from you guys in this kind of setting.”
A frequent line of questioning for Democrats: What intelligence, if any, had been given to Trump about the war's potential consequences? Trump, for instance, has said he was surprised that Iran responded to strikes from the United States by attacking Arab nations and has been contending with the economic impact of the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a body of water connecting the Persian Gulf to the world’s oceans and a vital passageway for oil and gas.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X that Trump was “fully briefed” on the possibility of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz and that the Pentagon has been planning for the possibility of Iran closing it “for DECADES.”
But Trump’s plan to secure the waterway is unclear, especially after he said this week that NATO and most other allies had rejected his calls to help secure it. Iran has said the strait is open except to the U.S. and its allies.
Democrats got few direct answers when they pressed administration officials on what Trump understood about that possibility, with Gabbard saying she would not divulge her conversations with him and CIA Director John Ratcliffe observing that he had been in countless briefings with the president.
“We’re trying to figure out if the president knew what the downside was of the Strait of Hormuz being closed,” said Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat. “Did he know this was going to happen or did he just disregard it?”
Gabbard appeared to try to thread a needle between emphasizing the intelligence community's views of Iran's risks — she said, for instance, that internal tensions would continue to increase even if the regime's leadership remained intact — and not completely echoing the president's arguments of an imminent threat.
At one point, Warner noted that Gabbard, in her prepared written statement submitted to the committee, said Iran’s nuclear enrichment program had been obliterated in strikes last year, but her opening remarks on Wednesday did not use that language.
He asked whether she had omitted that reference to conform to Trump's claims of an imminent threat. Gabbard insisted that she had skipped some of her written statement in the interest of time.
Trump has sought to distance himself from Kent. Ratcliffe tried to do the same Wednesday when he was asked whether intelligence supported Kent’s assessment that Iran was not an imminent threat. “The intelligence reflects the contrary,” Ratcliffe said.
Gabbard and Ratcliffe fielded the majority of questions, but other witnesses included the heads of the National Security Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency, as well as FBI Director Kash Patel, who was pressed about the terrorism threat amid a spate of attacks this month. Those include a man with a past terrorism conviction who opened fire inside an Old Dominion University classroom in Virginia and a Lebanese-born man in Michigan who drove his car into a synagogue.
One subject that did not receive attention: a deadly missile strike on an elementary school in Iran, which people familiar with the matter have said the U.S. likely carried out as a result of outdated intelligence.
Apart from Iran, Gabbard was pressed on her presence at an FBI search in January of the main election hub in Fulton County, Georgia, where agents seized voter data related to the 2020 presidential election. Her appearance at a domestic law enforcement operation raised eyebrows given that Gabbard's office is meant to focus squarely on foreign threats.
Warner described her appearance there as part of an “organized effort to misuse her national security powers to interfere in domestic politics and potentially provide a pretext for the president’s unconstitutional efforts to seize control of the upcoming elections.”
Gabbard responded that she was present for the search at the request of the president but did not participate, though she later said she helped to oversee it.
The House Intelligence Committee will hold its own threats hearing on Thursday.
Associated Press writers Mike Catalini, Ben Finley and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe testifies during the Senate Committee on Intelligence hearings on Capitol Hill Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
FBI Director Kash Patel listens during the Senate Committee on Intelligence hearings on Capitol Hill Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
From left, FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Intelligence Agency Director James Adams III, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Acting Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command William Hartman, listen during the Senate Committee on Intelligence hearings to examine worldwide threats on Capitol Hill Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
From left, FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Intelligence Agency Director James Adams, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Acting Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command William Hartman, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe are seated before the Senate Committee on Intelligence hearings to examine worldwide threats on Capitol Hill Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testifies before the Senate Committee on Intelligence hearings to examine worldwide threats on Capitol Hill Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Intelligence Agency Director James Adams, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Acting Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command William Hartman, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe are seated before the Senate Committee on Intelligence hearings to examine worldwide threats on Capitol Hill Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
From left, FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Intelligence Agency Director James Adams, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Acting Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command William Hartman, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe stand before the Senate Committee on Intelligence hearings to examine worldwide threats on Capitol Hill Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
From left, FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Intelligence Agency Director James Adams, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Acting Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command William Hartman, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe are seated before the Senate Committee on Intelligence hearings to examine worldwide threats on Capitol Hill Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
FBI Director Kash Patel takes part in a U.S. Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Flag Raising ceremony at the State Department, Monday, March 9, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
