AP, BOSTON
Kyrie Irving on Friday night had 11 straight points down the stretch and scored 17 in the final 8 minutes, 6 seconds of the fourth quarter. Then, in overtime, he really turned it on.
He made or assisted on every basket in the extra period, finishing with 11 assists and a season-high 43 points to lead the Boston Celtics to a 123-116 win over the Toronto Raptors.
“Man, he made some shots tonight where you’re just like: ‘Wow,’” forward Gordon Hayward said. “You catch yourself being a fan. When he gets into that mode, the whole arena knew where we were going, and so did the Raptors. They just couldn’t stop him.”
It was the first time Irving has scored at least 40 points with 10 or more assists in a game. He was the first player do it in the NBA this year and the first Celtics player since Antoine Walker in 2001.
“Kyrie did a great job in the fourth quarter knocking down shots,” said Kawhi Leonard, who scored 31 points and had a season-high 15 rebounds for Toronto. “We fought hard tonight, they played a better game and we’ve just got to keep playing better.”
Jayson Tatum had 21 points and seven rebounds for the Celtics, who evened the season series at one game apiece against the only team to finish above them in the Eastern Conference last season.
The home team has won nine straight matchups.
Serge Ibaka scored 21, while Pascal Siakam had 16 points and nine rebounds for the Raptors, who have lost three straight since opening the season with 12 victories in their first 13 games. Toronto never led in overtime.
“It was just a veteran game out there, just great competition for a Friday night in the NBA,” Irving said. “You’ve got to appreciate that, two great teams going at it, and I’m pretty sure we’ll see them down the road.”
Hayward scored 15 points and had five rebounds and five assists in a team-high 39 minutes — by far his biggest workload since an injury that knocked him out in the first quarter of the first game last season.
“I was wondering if they were going to take me out of the game,” Hayward said. “Happy that he [head coach Brad Stevens] left me in. It felt good to play that many minutes. It’s been such a long time. It was a good confidence-builder.”
Hayward hit a pair of free throws to open overtime, Ibaka answered with a jumper and from there it was all Celtics.
Hayward scored on a pass from Irving, then Irving rescued Tatum from a near turnover and drove for the layup to give Boston a 113-109 lead.
The Raptors never got closer than three points after that.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
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