After snapping the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 12-game win streak and beating an Atlanta Hawks squad that had won 14 of 15, the Celtics knocked off another of the NBA’s hottest teams Sunday in Charlotte — and did so without two of their starters.

Boston routed the Hornets — owners of the NBA’s best net rating since Jan. 1 — 114-99 at the Spectrum Center while Jaylen Brown and Derrick White watched from the bench in street clothes.

Jayson Tatum led all scorers with a season-high 32 points, eight assists and five rebounds in his most efficient outing since his return from Achilles surgery earlier this month (12-for-23, 5-for-10 from 3-point range, no turnovers).

Payton Pritchard added 28-6-6 on 10-of-20 shooting as the Celtics avenged their 29-point home loss to Charlotte on March 4. The Hornets’ top scorers from that initial matchup — Kon Knueppel, LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller — shot a combined 7-for-27 from three (25.9%) in the rematch.

With the win, Boston improved to 50-24 and clinched both a playoff spot and a top-four seed in the Eastern Conference. It’s the franchise’s fifth consecutive 50-win season.

“Fifty wins in a gap year,” Brown, who missed his second straight game with Achilles tendonitis, posted on X after the final buzzer.

The Celtics have, as Brown referenced, exceeded all expectations this season. They sit second in the East with eight games remaining despite playing their first 62 without Tatum, their perennial All-NBA centerpiece. They’re also 8-1 this season without Brown — an All-Star starter and NBA MVP candidate — with seven of those wins coming by double digits.

“It just speaks to the character of the organization, to the coaching staff, front office, to the players,” Tatum said in a postgame interview with NBC Sports Boston sideline reporter Abby Chin. “The standard that we’ve built since I’ve been here, you don’t take it for granted. It’s just how we approach every single day. Winning is hard in this league, but we’ve had the right mindset — they’ve had the right mindset — for the whole season. I’m just trying to help.”

White sat out with a right knee contusion Sunday, and backup center Nikola Vucevic missed his 12th straight game as he works his way back from finger surgery. Tatum and Neemias Queta (17 points, eight rebounds) were upgraded from questionable to available before tipoff. Both will be candidates for rest nights Monday as the Celtics visit the Hawks on the second night of a back-to-back.

To replace White and Brown, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla plugged Pritchard and Jordan Walsh into his starting five.

The choice of Walsh over Baylor Scheierman — who started for Brown on Friday and has been above Walsh on the depth chart for the last two-plus months — was notable, as the former had not started a game since New Year’s Day. Walsh was coming off a strong outing against Atlanta, however, playing 27 minutes and blocking three shots after six consecutive DNP-CDs. He shot 1-for-7 against Charlotte but had seven rebounds and was a plus-14 in 34 minutes. Scheierman scored 14 points off the bench in the win.

Pritchard’s start Sunday was just his second since the team moved him to the bench following its Anfernee Simons-for-Vucevic trade in early February. The 6-foot-1 guard followed up his 36-point night against the Hawks by picking the Hornets apart with paint jumpers, going 8-for-10 in the paint with just one shot inside the restricted area.

With Brown sitting, Tatum and Pritchard combined to score more than half of Boston’s points (122 out of 223) over the last two games.

Tatum, who’s felt “rusty” and frustrated with his play since returning from his 10-month rehab, looked more like his vintage self against the Hornets, especially early in the game. He scored or assisted on all six Celtics baskets during his opening six-minute shift, including a couple of explosive drives to the rim past Miller and Ryan Kalkbrenner.

Each of Tatum’s two early assists — a behind-the-back feed to Sam Hauser and a mid-air dish to Pritchard, both of which led to 3-pointers — was highlight-worthy, as was his pinpoint inbounds pass to a cutting Walsh that set up an and-one layup midway through the second quarter.

As a shooter — the weakest element of his game over his first 10 appearances — Tatum went 7-for-12 from the field and 3-for-4 from three in the first half, totaling 20 points. In the process, he became the ninth and youngest player in Celtics history to reach 14,000 points in his career. Only Larry Bird did so in fewer games.

“He looked like JT tonight. He was a killer,” Pritchard told reporters in Charlotte. “… (It was) very encouraging. We know if we want to win a championship, we need him at a high level. So it’s definitely encouraging, but he’s getting better and better each game and looking more and more like himself.”

Pritchard added 13 points before halftime, including three midrange jumpers during one second-quarter stretch with Tatum on the bench.

Another first-half difference-maker: two-way player Ron Harper Jr., who rarely sees action when the Celtics have their full roster available. Harper made his first three field goals, grabbed three rebounds, blocked a shot and stole a Coby White pass in 10 minutes of floor time. His corner three capped a 10-0 Celtics run to open the second quarter, putting Boston ahead 37-21.

Two minutes later, Harper landed awkwardly on his right ankle, exited toward the locker room and sat out the rest of the first half, but he later returned.

Up 63-49 at half, Boston stretched its lead to 20 points early in the third quarter, with Tatum and Pritchard again leading the charge. Pritchard scored seven straight Celtics points — including a second-chance 3-pointer off a gritty offensive rebound by Queta — to make it 72-53. Tatum assisted on his team’s first three second-half makes, then canned his fourth triple of the game.

A scoring binge from Charlotte’s bench cut the deficit to 14 points entering the fourth quarter. Ball, who’d been held to seven points on 2-of-11 shooting to that point, then caught fire, converting a layup and two 3-pointers to bring the Hornets within single digits.

During an ensuing timeout, Mazzulla changed tactics, ditching the small-ball lineup he deployed at the start of the fourth quarter and reinserting Queta. The Celtics proceeded to score on their next six possessions to reestablish control.

Back-to-back buckets by Tatum made it 106-90 with 5:57 remaining and ended the Celtics star’s night after 31 minutes. Hornets head coach Charles Lee pulled his starters two minutes later, sending in a squadron of deep reserves that included popular ex-Celtics forward Xavier Tillman. Mazzulla followed suit, giving 10-day signee Charles Bassey and rookies Amari Williams, Max Shulga and John Tonje some run in garbage time.

The Celtics will see Charlotte once more during the regular season (April 7 at TD Garden). The teams are potential first-round playoff foes, depending on how high the 10th-place Hornets can climb in the conference standings. The teams seeded fifth through 10th as of Sunday night were separated by just 3 1/2 games.

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