Celtics crush Grizzlies; Nets rally, beat Hawks
Jaylen Brown had a career-high 42 points, scoring 18 in the second quarter on Wednesday night when the Boston Celtics pulled away to earn their 10th straight victory over the Memphis Grizzlies, 126-107.
Brown matched his career best of 34 points with three minutes left in the third, and his seven threepointers made (on 10 attempts) tied a career high. Jayson Tatum scored 16 points, Marcus Smart had 14 and Robert Williams III had 10 rebounds for Boston, which hasn’t lost to Memphis since 2016.
Hours after announcing they will be without leading scorer and reigning Rookie of the Year Ja Morant for three to five weeks because of a sprained ankle, the Grizzlies lost for the third time in four games. Jonas Valančiūnas had 20 points and 11 rebounds for Memphis, and Gorgui Dieng scored 17 points.
●Nets
141: Kyrie Irving shook off three rough quarters to score 17 of his 25 points in the fourth, Kevin Durant had 33 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, and the host Nets handed Atlanta its first loss of the season.
In the opener of a twogame series between the teams that was almost entirely about offense — the third game in Nets franchise where both teams had 100 points through three quarters — Irving couldn't get into the act. He was just 3 for 16 from the field and getting badly outplayed by point guard counterpart
Trae Young.
145, Hawks
ELSEWHERE
●Pacers: Longtime Indiana executive Donnie
Walsh, 79, the architect of the franchise’s turnaround, announced his retirement.
Walsh came to Indiana as an assistant coach in 1984, joining a franchise that had never won a playoff game during its NBA history.
●TV ratings: NBA viewers watched 81.5 million hours of live games on ABC, ESPN and TNT in the opening week of the season, up 95% from opening week in 2019.
In terms of total hours, this season’s opening week was the most viewed since 2011, the league said Wednesday. That also was the last time the NBA season opened during the week of Christmas; it was on Dec. 25 that year and Dec. 22 this year.
The NBA season typically opens in October. The start of this season was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic; there was a labor dispute in 2011.
Games shown on ESPN on Christmas Day — New Orleans against Miami and the Los Angeles Clippers against Denver — were up 10 percent in average viewers (2.83 million) over the games shown in comparable windows on Christmas last season.