MIAMI (AP) ― A week ago, the Boston Celtics beat the Miami Heat with defense. This time, they did it with offense.
Paul Pierce scored 27 points, Kevin Garnett added 24 points and nine rebounds, and the Celtics made their first eight shots of the fourth quarter to hold off the Heat 115-107 on Tuesday night.
Rajon Rondo posted double-digit assists for the 18th straight game, extending the NBA’s longest such streak in 20 years with an 18-point, 15-assist effort. Brandon Bass added 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Avery Bradley scored 11 for the Celtics, who shot a season-high 61 percent.
LeBron James finished with 36 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for Miami, which got 20 from Dwyane Wade and 18 from Mario Chalmers. Chris Bosh finished with 13 on 5-for-13 shooting.
The Celtics beat Miami 91-72 in Boston on April 1, a game the Heat called “unacceptable” after establishing season-lows in scoring and shooting.
This one won’t sit any better with the reigning Eastern Conference champions, who ousted the Celtics in five games from last year’s playoffs and could see them in the second round of the upcoming postseason. No team had shot better than 55 percent against the Heat this season, and Boston’s 115 points were two shy of matching a season-high against Miami.
Boston improved to 18-7 since the All-Star break, and dealt Miami a blow in the race for the No. 1 seed in the East. The Heat fell 2 1/2 games behind Chicago.
A layup by Wade got Miami within 108-103 with 2:22 left, before Garnett made a high-arcing jumper that dropped softly through the net, his 11th make in 14 shots.
That pretty much described the night. Whenever Miami got close, the Celtics found a way to hold them off. Miami had two shots to tie early in the fourth after being down by as many as 18 earlier, before Garnett made jump shots on four straight possessions, the average length of those makes being 19 feet.
A 10-0 run early in the first quarter gave Boston a quick lead ― and that wasn’t even the Celtics’ best run of the opening period. Boston scored the last 11 of the first, the run actually becoming 13-0 when Garnett scored to open the second quarter, and Boston’s lead was 35-22.
Everything the Celtics wanted, they got. Boston shot 61 percent in the first quarter, 62 percent in the second. Celtics coach Doc Rivers used eight players, all of them making multiple shots by halftime. Of them, the only one who failed to make at least half his shots was Bass, who more than made up for that with six first-half rebounds.
Bulls top Knicks
CHICAGO (AP) ― Richard Hamilton scored 20 points, Luol Deng added 19 and the Chicago Bulls, playing without Derrick Rose again, beat the New York Knicks 98-86 Tuesday night.
Hamilton had 18 points in the third quarter to help Chicago stay ahead after building a 12-point halftime lead. Kyle Korver added 14 points and three blocks, and the Bulls prevailed despite Carmelo Anthony’s 29 points for New York.
Rose, meanwhile, was in an all-too familiar spot for the Bulls, nursing yet another injury. This time, it was a sprained right ankle.
The league’s reigning MVP was injured in the first half of Sunday’s overtime loss at New York, after he returned from a 12-game absence because of a groin problem.
Rose wound up scoring 29 in that game, but shot only 8 of 26 and missed potential winning shots at the end of regulation and OT, as well as two free throws with the Bulls up by three with 19 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Now, he’s missed 23 games because of a variety of ailments, including a turf toe injury and back spasms. Still, the Bulls managed to get back to winning after dropping three of four, beating a team they might meet in the first round of the playoffs.
Anthony came up big again for the Knicks after scoring a season-high 43 and hitting the go-ahead 3 in overtime on Sunday, but New York got pounded on the boards 51-33.
Cleveland 103, Charlotte 90
Washington 93, Orlando 85
Philadelphia 107, New Jersey 88
Dallas 110, Sacramento 100
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
