The Boston Celtics moved to within two wins of an unprecedented NBA playoff series victory by beating the New York Knicks 92-86 on Wednesday, slicing their deficit in the series to 3-2 and with the contest to now shift back to Boston.
Kevin Garnett had 16 points and 18 rebounds to lead the Celtics, who are bidding to become the first team to come from 3-0 down to win a series 4-3.
“We’re still down. Our mentality has to be all-out,” Garnett said. “It can’t be anything [else].”
Photo: AFP
In Wednesday’s other games, Indiana had a comfortable home win over Atlanta to go up 3-2, while Houston won at Oklahoma City to also close their deficit to 3-2.
Houston played without starting point guard Jeremy Lin for the second straight game because of a bruised chest muscle.
Boston’s Brandon Bass added 17 points, steadying Boston as they shook off an 11-0 deficit and pulled away in the second half to again stop the Knicks sealing their first playoff series victory since 2000.
Photo: AFP
“We didn’t panic and that’s something we’ve done, but we didn’t,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “Once the game got back to that five, six area, our guys were good again.”
Carmelo Anthony scored 22 points, but was just eight of 24 in another dismal shooting night for the Knicks, who blew a big lead in this game and now the series. They face an unwanted trip back to Boston instead of the rest their aging roster needs before the second round.
“We’re fine,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. “Sure we would’ve loved to close it out and move on, but nobody said it would be easy.”
If Boston manage to square the series 3-3, the Knicks would host Game 7 on Sunday.
“I told you from Game 1 that this wasn’t going to be a breeze, it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park, them guys were going to fight and they’re showing some fight right now,” Anthony said. “They threw a couple punches at us now and it’s time for us to do the same.”
The Celtics were the first of the eight NBA teams that have come from 3-1 down, beating Philadelphia in 1968, and put themselves on the short list of teams that have erased a 2-0 deficit the next year in the NBA Finals.
So perhaps it would be fitting if they were the first to overcome 3-0.
“That would be wonderful, and someone’s going to do it and I want it to be us, since that’s the situation we’re in,” Rivers said before the game. “Someone will do it, and I really want to be a part of that.”
Indiana also hold a slim 3-2 advantage after a 106-83 home win over the Atlanta Hawks.
David West scored 24 points and Paul George had 21 points and 10 rebounds for the Pacers, who have won all three home games in the best-of-seven series and are 5-0 at home this season against the Hawks.
They’ll go to Atlanta today with a chance to clinch the best-of-seven series, but the Hawks have won 13 straight at home against the Pacers, including both games in this series.
Atlanta were led by Josh Smith and Al Horford, who each had 14 points, and it was every bit as ugly as the Hawks’ first two double-digit losses in Indy.
Indiana took the lead for good midway through the second quarter and opened the third period on a 12-3 run to make it 62-46. The Pacers put it away when the Hawks lost their composure.
Houston also avoided elimination by beating the Oklahoma City Thunder 107-100, with James Harden scoring 31 points and sinking seven three-pointers while fighting through flu-like symptoms.
Harden made the first seven threes he tried and Houston led by as many as 16 before fending off a rally that Oklahoma City helped stymie with their own strategy.
The Thunder, apparently doubting they could overcome an eight-point lead on their home court without Russell Westbrook, resorted to intentionally fouling Omer Asik — a 54 percent career foul shooter — with 5:33 to play.
Asik went eight for 12 from the line, extending Houston’s lead to 101-92 with 3:53 remaining before Oklahoma City gave up the tactic.
Kevin Durant finished with 36 points for Oklahoma City.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with