COUSINS EJECTED
Los Angeles, Nov. 21: Kyrie Irving laid on a 47point masterclass to give the Boston Celtics a 16th straight victory as the Cleveland Cavaliers thrashed the Detroit Pistons to continue their revival.
Irving was in dazzling form for Boston as they rallied from a 10- point deficit in the fourth quarter to overhaul the Dallas Mavericks 110- 102 in overtime.
Irving’s haul included five three- pointers and three rebounds as Boston came back from 89- 79 down with five minutes remaining in the final quarter to win.
Boston improved to 16- 2
● Irving delivered 10 of his points in overtime, single- handedly pulling Boston clear of Dallas ( 110- 102) in the decisive phase of the game
with the victory to head the Eastern Conference. Dallas fell to 3- 15 with the loss.
Irving delivered 10 of his points in overtime, singlehandedly pulling Boston clear of Dallas in the decisive phase of the game.
It was the fourth- highest scoring game of Irving’s career and helped Boston tie the franchises fourthlongest winning streak.
Elsewhere on Monday, Cleveland sent a message to their rivals in the
● It was the fourth- highest scoring game of Irving’s career and helped Boston tie the franchises fourth- longest winning streak
Eastern Conference with a ruthless walloping of Detroit.
The Cavs 116- 88 blowout was the clearest sign yet that the 2016 NBA champions have shaken off their early- season problems.
Cleveland have now won five games in a row and have improved to 10- 7. Detroit, who entered the game with an impressive 11- 5 record, were put in their place by Cavaliers who were determined to make a statement.
Kevin Love led the scoring with 19 points, 11 rebounds and four assists while LeBron James had 18 points and eight rebounds in 27 minutes.
Jae Crowder had 18 points with Jose Calderon adding 14. James saluted the way Cleveland maintained their scoring momentum. Pistons coach Stan Gundy chalked up the defeat to a bad night at the office.
“For most teams in this league, there’s three, four, five of those games a year,” Van Gundy said.
“Tonight was one of them. We didn’t play well at either end. We made mistakes and they played terrifically,” he added.
In other games on Monday, Anthony Davis scored 36 points to help the New Orleans Pelicans defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder 114- 107.
The Pelicans rallied from 19 points down in the first quarter to claim a victory that was overshadowed by DeMarcus Cousins’ ejection for an elbow on Russell Westbrook in the third quarter. — AFP