Walker sparks late rally, Hornets defeat Celtics
Kemba Walker scored 18 of his game-high 36 points in the fourth quarter and the Charlotte Hornets rallied to beat the Boston Celtics 124-117 Saturday night in Charlotte, North Carolina.
It was Walker’s 23rd game of 30 or more points this season. He added 11 rebounds and nine assists.
Rookie Miles Bridges scored a career-high 20 points, Marvin Williams and Malik Monk added 13 points apiece and Dwayne Bacon scored 11.
Charlotte won its second straight, improved to 33-39 and kept its faint postseason hopes alive.
Kyrie Irving led Boston with 31 points. Jaylen Brown added 29 points and Marcus Morris 15. The Celtics (43-30) lost their third straight game despite hitting 19 3-pointers.
Trailing 112-94 with 8:22 remaining, Charlotte closed the game on a 30-5 run that included all 18 of Walker’s fourth quarter points.
In front of a crowd of 19,438 at Spectrum Center, Irving scored 16 first-quarter points as the Celtics appeared to take control of the game. But Charlotte rallied and closed within 64-63 at halftime. HAWKS 129, 76ERS 127: Trae Young scored 32 points, including a last-second, go-ahead floater, as Atlanta snapped Philadelphia’s six-game winning streak. With 3.5 seconds remaining, Young took the inbound pass from Kevin Huerter and dribbled past Jimmy Butler before sinking the short, soft jumper for the lead with 0.1 seconds remaining. Butler missed a long attempt as the final buzzer sounded. Taurean Prince had 23 points for Atlanta. Joel Embiid had 27 points and 12 rebounds, and Butler had 25 points for Philadelphia. MAVERICKS 126, WARRIORS 91: Luka Doncic had a tripledouble, Dirk Nowitzki scored a season-best 21 points in a rare start and Dallas capitalized on Stephen Curry’s absence to beat Golden State. Golden State dropped out of the top seed in the Western Conference to a half-game behind Denver. With Curry resting, Kevin Durant had 25 points and Demarcus Cousins scored 19. The Warriors were 4 for 30 from 3-point range, with Durant going 0 for 8 and Klay Thompson missing all four of his tries. Doncic had 23 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.