The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Tatum leaves with injury in Celtics’ win over Grizzlies
BOSTON — Jayson Tatum scored 23 points before leaving the game in the third quarter with a groin injury as the Boston Celtics routed the Memphis Grizzlies 119-95 on Wednesday night.
Daniel Theis had 14 points, Enes Kanter finished with 13 points and eight rebounds to help Boston win its second straight. Memphis has lost two in a row since posting a season-high, seven-game win streak.
Jonas Valanciunas led the Grizzlies with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Jaren Jackson Jr. and Solomon Hill each added 13 points.
Tatum limped to the locker room with a right groin strain with 4:43 left in the third. He returned to the bench at the start of fourth quarter with his right leg wrapped, but was still noticeably in pain and did not return.
But Boston didn’t need him, using an 22-3 run — capped by a 3-pointer by Gordon Hayward — to increase their 12-point halftime lead to 87-54. Kemba Walker, Hayward and Marcus Smart scored 18 of Boston’s first 20 points in the period. Boston was 6 of 7 from the 3-point line. It was the worst third quarter of the season for Memphis, which was outscored by 22 points.
The Celtics’ lead grew as high as 38 points in the fourth.
Boston missed 13 of its first 17 field goal attempts, including going 1 of 8 from the 3-point line. Walker, Hayward and Smart scored just six points between them in the first half, combining to go just 1 of 16 from the field.
It helped Memphis, which had the highest scoring offense last month (118.7 per game since Dec. 9), to take a 42-35 lead in the second quarter.
But Boston got its footing and used a 23-0 run to take a 58-42 advantage. The Grizzlies went scoreless for 6:51 until Valanciunas scored with just 1.3 seconds left before halftime.
Lakers 100, Knicks 92: At New York, LeBron James scored 19 of his 21 points to quickly cut into Kobe Bryant’s shrinking lead over him for the No. 3 scoring spot in NBA history, and Los Angeles beat New York.
Anthony Davis led the Lakers with 28 points in his second game back after a five-game absence, after the Western Conference leaders were handed their worst loss of the season Monday in his return.
James’ quiet second half left him with 33,599 points, 44 back of Bryant.
That keeps James in good shape to catch the former Lakers star Saturday at Philadelphia, where the five-time NBA champion was born. Los Angeles has a game in between Thursday in Brooklyn.
Davis scored eight points in the final 3:45 and finished 13 of 13 from the free throw line. He played 30 minutes after going only 23 in his return from a bruised gluteus maximus on Monday in Boston, where the Lakers were routed 139-107.
Marcus Morris scored 20 points and Damyean Dotson had 17 for the Knicks, who put up a much better effort after losing by 30 two weeks ago in Los Angeles. But they just couldn’t come up with timely shots to really threaten the Lakers in the fourth quarter.
James shot 8 of 10 in 17 minutes of the first half, but the Knicks held the rest of the Lakers relatively in check and the game was tied at 48 at halftime.