Rajon Rondo scored 17 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and passed out eight assists while Boston’s defense kept Orlando to a season-low for points in an 86-77 NBA victory on Friday.
However, a late-game stumble by Kevin Garnett threatened to steal the joy from a Christmas triumph by inflicting yet another injury upon the Celtics.
A Boston club playing without Paul Pierce because of a right knee injury also lost Garnett late in the game when he leaped to block a Vince Carter shot, fell awkwardly to the court, then rose and hobbled to the bench holding his back.
Garnett, who missed his first game of the season on Tuesday with a thigh bruise, had 10 points and seven rebounds. Celtics coach Doc Rivers said all that was wrong with Garnett was a bruise on his head.
Ray Allen scored 18 points and Tony Allen, replacing Pierce in Boston’s lineup, added 16 as the Celtics improved to 23-5 with their 14th triumph in 15 games.
“This was definitely a benchmark game for us because we have been talking about this game for a long time,” Ray Allen said. “We did what we had to do and took care of the game.”
Vince Carter scored a game-high 27 points in a losing cause while Rashard Lewis added 19 points and Frenchman Mickael Pietrus added nine for the Magic, who fell to 22-8, still one game ahead of Atlanta atop the Southeast division.
Magic center Dwight Howard, who pulled down 20 rebounds, was kept to only five points.
“You’ve got to play him physical. You watch other teams around the league, they pretty much let him set up shop,” Boston center Kendrick Perkins said. “You’ve just got to go in and be prepared to go to war. You’ve got to fight him first, hit him first. He likes to be physical but he doesn’t like anyone to be physical with him.”
Orlando trimmed the deficit to 78-75 before Ray Allen’s jumper and two free-throws pushed the Celtics out of range for good.
“It wasn’t the prettiest ball,” Rivers said. “It was ugly ball.”
The matchup between the two top clubs in the Eastern Conference was among five Christmas Day games on the NBA schedule, something that irked Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy.
“I actually feel sorry for people who have nothing to do on Christmas Day other than watch an NBA game,” Van Gundy said. “If I had my way, we’d take a five-day break at Christmas. Obviously basketball is very important to me, but there are some days of the year where it’s got to take a back seat to something.”
■SUNS V CLIPPERS
AFP, PHOENIX, ARIZONA
Amare Stoudemire scored 26 points and grabbed nine rebounds to power the Phoenix Suns past the Los Angeles Clippers 124-93 on Friday in an NBA rout that was the most lopsided Suns win of the season.
Jared Dudley and Jason Richardson each added 18 points and seven Suns were double-digit scorers in the romp, which snapped a two game home skid for the Suns (19-10) after they began the season with 10 home wins in a row.
The Clippers, led by Rasual Butler’s 22 points, lost to the Suns for the sixth time in a row, sliding to 12-17 after having won four of their prior six starts.
A Grant Hill bank shot from three-quarters of the court away at the halftime buzzer gave Phoenix a 67-55 lead and a 10-2 Phoenix run to end the third quarter put the Suns ahead 101-77 to secure the romp.
Canadian guard Steve Nash, who leads the NBA with 11.4 assists a game, had 14 points and eight assists for Phoenix.
■BLAZERS V NUGGETS
AFP, PORTLAND, OREGON
Brandon Roy scored 41 points to outshine NBA leading scorer Carmelo Anthony and spark the Portland Trail Blazers past Denver 107-96 on Friday, tightening their Northwest division rivalry.
The Blazers improved to 20-12 on the season, 11-4 at home, while the Nuggets fell to 20-10 but remained one game atop Portland in the division lead.
Hot-shooting Steve Blake scored 17 points for Portland, his three-pointers in the fourth quarter helping secure the victory. Andre Miller added 14 for the Blazers, who outscored Denver 33-20 in the final 12 minutes for the triumph.
Roy connected on 16-of-26 from the field and 6-of-6 from the free-throw line.
Anthony scored 32 points, hitting 11-of-23 from the field to better his NBA-best average of 30.5 points a game, but still not putting in enough points for Denver to win. J.R. Smith added 20 points and Kenyon Martin scored 12 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for the Nuggets.
■HEAT V KNICKS
AFP, NEW YORK
Dwyane Wade scored 30 points and grabbed nine rebounds to spark the Miami Heat past New York 93-87 on Friday, snapping the Knicks’ three-game win streak.
Wade, ranked fifth among NBA scorers with 26.6 points a game, scored 10 points in the third quarter to give Miami a 64-54 edge as the Heat held off a late New York rally for the Christmas Day victory, improving to 15-12.
Michael Beasley scored 13 of his 19 points in the second half, and Jermaine O’Neal added 11 points and eight rebounds for Miami, sinking a key jumper in the final seconds after the Knicks had trimmed the Heat’s edge to three points
Italy’s Danilo Gallinari scored 26 points and David Lee contributed 19 points and 16 rebounds for the Knicks.
US national team star Folarin Balogun was among the scorers as AS Monaco on Friday won 3-1 at Paris Saint-Germain, dealing a blow to the side from the French capital before they face Chelsea in a crunch UEFA Champions League round-of-16 tie. Maghnes Akliouche gave Monaco a first-half lead at the Parc des Princes, and Aleksandr Golovin doubled their advantage early in the second half of the French Ligue 1 clash. Bradley Barcola pulled one back for the reigning European champions, but Balogun struck shortly after with a fifth goal in his last five games as Monaco claimed a precious
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CHANCE TO QUALIFY: Both teams now have three points from two games, and Taiwan sit ahead of Vietnam and behind Japan, who last night beat India 11-0 Taiwan yesterday defeated Vietnam 1-0 to move into second place in Group C at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup with one match remaining. Su Yu-hsuan scored the decisive goal in the 26th minute after Taiwan midfielder Saki Matsunaga’s shot hit the crossbar, leaving Su to nod the rebound into an empty net for the team which won the last of their three Asian Cup titles in 1981. It was a deserved victory for Taiwan, 2-0 losers to Japan on Wednesday, who created several chances to extend their lead. Vietnam, the 2022 quarter-finalist, beat India in their opener, but struggled to
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