Raptors top Celtics with 3 at buzzer
The Toronto Raptors were a halfsecond away from falling into the abyss that no NBA team has ever escaped. Down by two points, down by two games, the reigning champions needed a miracle.
OG Anunoby delivered. Anunoby caught a cross-court pass that Kyle Lowry threaded over everybody else on the floor and hit a threepointer as time expired, giving the Raptors a 104-103 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series Thursday night.
The Celtics took a two-point lead when Kemba Walker found Daniel Theis for a dunk with a half-second left.
No team in NBA history has rallied from a 3-0 series deficit. The Raptors won’t have to try it now; Lowry elected to audible and throw the long pass
— threading it over Boston’s 7-foot-5 Tacko Fall, who was put in specifically to disrupt the inbounds play — to Anunoby.
Lowry finished with 31 points, eight assists and six rebounds. Fred Vanvleet scored 25 points, Pascal Siakam had 16 and Anunoby 12.
Walker scored 29 points for Boston, which lost for the first time in seven playoff games.
Clippers roll past Nuggets
Kawhi Leonard scored 29 points, and the Los Angeles routed the Denver Nuggets 120-97 in Game 1 of a Western Conference semifinal series Thursday.
Paul George scored 19 points and Marcus Morris added 18. The Clippers shot 57% from the field.
Nikola Jokic scored 15 points for the Nuggets, who were coming off a sevengame series with Utah that just ended
Tuesday. Jamal Murray, who averaged 31.6 points in the first round and scored at least 50 points twice in that series, finished with 12 points on 5-for-15 shooting.
Grizzlies’ Morant rookie of year
Ja Morant was the runaway winner of the Rookie of the Year award. Morant averaged 17.8 points and 7.3 assists this season, picking up three Western Conference rookie of the month awards along the way.
Morant recieved 99 of the 100 firstplace votes. Miami’s Kendrick Nunn was second and New Orleans’ Zion Williamson third.
Nunn, who was undrafted, averaged 15.3 points in 67 regular-season for the Heat. Williamson averaged 22.5 points and 6.3 rebounds, but the No. 1 pick in the 2019 draft missed much of his rookie season while dealing with injury.