The Boston Celtics, buoyed by a return to their home floor, jumped to a big lead and held on to beat Miami 101-91 on Friday and narrow the gap on the Heat in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.
Kevin Garnett scored 24 points with 11 rebounds, Paul Pierce added 23 and Rajon Rondo chipped in with 21, as the Celtics narrowed the gap in the best-of-seven series to 2-1 after dropping the first two games in Miami.
Rondo, whose career-high 44 points on Wednesday couldn’t prevent an overtime loss, also added 10 assists and six rebounds in another sparkling performance.
Photo: Reuters
He scored eight points in the fourth quarter, helping beat back a Heat rally.
Miami had eaten into a 24-point final-period deficit and pulled within eight points with less than two minutes remaining when Ray Allen grabbed a Dwyane Wade miss and passed to Rondo, who took the ball the length of the court for a layup that stretched Boston’s lead to 99-89.
“He stabilized us, really,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who admitted he was concerned by his team’s defense as Miami mounted their late challenge.
“We couldn’t score and they scored every time,” Rivers said, adding that his players “were concerned about not scoring and I was more concerned about Miami scoring.
“I thought: ‘Guys, if we get stops we can beat them down the floor, but we have to get stops,’” he added.
NBA Most Valuable Player LeBron James had 34 points, eight rebounds and five assists for Miami, who got 18 points from Wade.
Wade shot just 9-of-20 from the field and didn’t attempt a free throw as James received little help from his teammates.
James’ 16 first-quarter points were more than the 14 mustered by the Heat in the second period.
Mike Miller gave the Heat a boost with nine of his 11 points in the fourth quarter. Mario Chalmers silenced the Boston faithful with a three-point play that made it 95-87, but they couldn’t close the gap and Garnett drained a 20 foot jump shot in the final minute to seal the win.
“This is a championship team,” James said of Boston. “They have a lot of guys that won championship rings. They got a lot of pride. We know we’re not going to be able to just walk on top of them.”
“We’re not satisfied with just one win,” Rondo said. “They defended their home court and in a couple of days we’ll do the same.”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Miami would immediately turn their attention to Game 4, and the chance to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the series.
“All of our energy, all of our focus right now will be on Sunday,” he said. “We still have a golden opportunity.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but