Irving, Celtics stay on roll, bury Spurs
BOSTON — The injury to free agent Gordon Hayward devastated the Boston Celtics emotionally and threatened to derail their efforts to improve on last season’s Eastern Conference finals appearance.
It took about three games for them to figure things out. “Once that happened, we really didn’t know where we were at as a team,” center Al Horford said Monday after the Celtics won their fifth straight game, beating the San Antonio Spurs 108-94. “We’ve really come together.”
Kyrie Irving scored 24 points for the third straight game, Jaylen Brown added 18, and Horford had 13 rebounds for Boston, which last beat the Spurs in 2011 — a 10-game losing streak.
Boston signed Hayward in the offseason in an attempt to bolster the team that earned the No. 1 seed in the East. But the deal that swapped Irving for Isaiah Thomas signaled a near-complete break with last year’s team.
Then Hayward was injured before the season was six minutes old, and the Celtics lost their first two games. Since then, they haven’t lost.
Brandon Paul scored 18 points for San Antonio, which remains without Tony Parker (left quad) and Kawhi Leonard (right quad).
At Miami, Jeff Teague had 23 points and Andrew Wiggins 22 for Minnesota, which scored the first six points of overtime. Dion Waiters scored 14 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter for Miami.
At New Orleans, Marreese Speights highlighted his 18-point effort by hitting five of his six 3-pointers during a 22-6 Orlando run spanning the final two quarters. Anthony Davis scored 39 points for New Orleans. At Portland, Ore., Demar Derozan scored 25 points for Toronto, which
Timberwolves 125, Heat 122, OT— Magic 115, Pelicans 99 — Raptors 99, Trail Blazers 85 —
held Portland to six second-quarter points. Damian Lillard scored 36 points for the Blazers.
At Houston, Ben Simmons had 24 points and nine assists and Joel Embiid 22 points for Philadelphia, which snapped an eight-game slide against the Rockets.
At Memphis, Tenn., Kemba Walker scored nine of his 27 points in an 18-4 run by Charlotte that erased a 10-point deficit with eight minutes left. Memphis missed 21 of 27 fourth-quarter shots.
At Salt Lake City, Rodney Hood scored 15 of his 25 points in the third quarter, when Utah opened with a 25-4 run. Hood’s pull-up 3-pointer capped a 11-0 run in the fourth.
At New York, Kristaps Porzingis scored a career-high 38 points for New York, which blew all of a 23-point third quarter lead before rallying. Nikola Jokic led Denver with 28 points. At Los Angeles, Stephen Curry hit 7 of 11 3-point attempts and totaled 31 points for Golden State in its 11th straight victory over Los Angeles dating to Christmas Day 2014.
76ers 115, Rockets 107 — Hornets 104, Grizzlies 99 — Jazz 104, Mavericks 89 — Knicks 116, Nuggets 110 — Warriors 141, Clippers 113 —