Smart response gives Celtics Christmas win over Knicks
Marcus Smart’s tie-breaking three pointer with 47.8 seconds remaining saw the Boston Celtics thwart the New York Knicks’ comeback bid to post a 119-114 Christmas NBA victory on Sunday.
Al Horford found Smart for the key basket for the Celtics, who had appeared to be cruising towards a fifth win in six games when they held leads of 109-96 with 4:58 remaining and 112104 with two minutes left to play.
But after the Knicks reeled off eight straight points to knot the score at 112-112 with 66 seconds left, the Celtics needed Smart’s heroics.
A basket by Carmelo Anthony forced the Celtics to call their final full timeout, and coming out of the stoppage, Jae Crowder was guarded by New York’s Kristaps Porzingis on the inbounds pass.
Three other players touched the ball before it wound up in Smart’s hands on the left side near the Celtics bench after Horford passed it out of the post. “I was going for the shot,” Horford said. “It kind of was one of those things that I saw him there and you feel the defence out there sometimes. So it’s just about making the right, easy play. I hit him and he hit a huge shot.”
Smart had enough time to set his feet and drain the uncontested three.
“He drew multiple defenders and kicked it out. I know most teams are going to leave me open,” said Smart, who has connected on 27.9 per cent of his three-point attempts this season. “I got an opportunity to knock down a big shot for my team.”
On New York’s next possession, a closely guarded Anthony was unable to get a threepointer to drop. The Knicks seized the rebound, but Avery Bradley stripped Anthony of the ball with 18.8 seconds left.
“We fought our way back and stayed in the game defensively,” Anthony said. “That big three by Marcus Smart gave them confidence to finish the game.”
Isaiah Thomas led the Celtics with 27 points while Crowder and Kelly Olynyk added 16 apiece. Horford and Smart contributed 15 points each for Boston, who never trailed after the 5:14 mark of the second quarter.
Anthony led the Knicks with 29 points but connected on just nine of 24 from the floor.
Derrick Rose added 25 and Porzingis chipped in 22 for the Knicks, who dropped their fourth straight Christmas Day game. yrie Irving’s turnaround jumper over Klay ThThThThompson with 3.4 seconds left gave the Cleveland Cavaliers a thrilling 109- 108 victory on Sunday in an NBA Finals rematch against the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors led most of the game and extended their lead to 94- 80 with LeBron James resting on the bench early in the fourth quarter.
But James’ rim- rattling dunk with 1: 43 left gave the Cavs a 105- 103 lead — their fififirst since early in the fifirst quarter — and Irving finished offffff the stunning comeback.
It was reminiscent of his championship- winning 3-pointer in the final minute of Game 7 last June when Cleveland became the first team in NBA history to come back from a 3- 1 deficit.
LaMarcus Aldridge hit his first 11 shots from the flfloor on the way to a season- high 33 points in leading the San Antonio Spurs to a wild 119- 100 home victory over the Chicago Bulls.
Kawhi Leonard added 25 points and a game-high 10 rebounds for the Spurs (25- 6), who built a 20- point fififirstquarter lead but gave it all back and more by midway through the third quarter, when it trailed 70- 67.
The Spurs then blew past the Bulls in the minutes.
Chicago (14- 16) was led by Dwayne Wade’s 24 points. final 16
Russell Westbrook had 32 points and 15 assists to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Westbrook made 11 of 25 shots from the field and grabbed seven rebounds as the Thunder improved to 1912 this season.
Centre Steven Adams added 22 points and Enes Kanter came off the bench to drop 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the floor.
Karl Anthony Towns paced the Timberwolves with 26 points and eight rebounds. Andrew Wiggins scored 23 points and Zach LaVine added 16 for Minnesota.
Timofey Mozgov and Nick Young scored 19 points as the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Los Angeles Clippers. The Lakers’ victory snapped a four- game losing streak. They used a balanced attack for the victory. Seven Lakers reached double figures in scoring, including Luol Deng, who registered 13 points and 12 rebounds.
The Clippers were led by Redick and Jamal Crawford with 22 points. Redick left the contest after three quarters with a sore left hamstring.
The Lakers used a decisive 34- 16 third quarter, including a 15-2 spurt in the opening five minutes, to forge a commanding 89-74 lead.
The Clippers opened the fourth quarter with an 11-0 run to cut the margin to four points with 8: 20 in the contest but could get no closer. — Reuters