Jayson Tatum on Wednesday scored 31 points as the Boston Celtics held off a late fightback from the Milwaukee Bucks to win 122-119 in their top-of-table Eastern Conference clash.
Boston had looked to be cruising toward their seventh straight victory after dominating Milwaukee for long periods at TD Garden.
Exploiting the absence of injured Bucks talisman Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Celtics surged into a 21-point lead late in the third quarter after Milwaukee had closed to within five just after halftime.
Photo: AFP
However, a blistering fourth-quarter performance by Milwaukee — who outscored the Celtics 36-21 in the final frame — set up a nerve-shredding finale before Boston squeaked home.
“It was ugly,” Tatum said. “We didn’t play the way we wanted to in the fourth quarter and they went on a run. No lead is safe in the NBA, but a win is a win and we’ll take it.”
Boston improved to 55-14 with the victory, leaving them a hefty 11 games clear of the second-placed Bucks. The Celtics now need just three more wins to be assured of top seeding and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
Photo: AFP
Even allowing for the fourth-quarter wobble, few would bet against them returning to the NBA Finals in June after a performance that once again showcased their balanced offense.
Five Boston players finished with double-digit points tallies, including Derrick White (23), Jaylen Brown (21) and Kristaps Porzingis (17). Payton Pritchard added 19 off the bench.
“We’ve just got a really complete team,” Tatum told ESPN. “We’ve been playing great all season, but we’ve still got a long way to go. I like the way that we’re trending, but we’re just focused on getting better every single day.”
Photo: Winslow Townson-USA Today
“We’re not looking to the playoffs,” he said. “We’ve got a game [tomorrow Taiwan time] against [the] Detroit [Pistons] — and that’s the mindset that we’ve got to have.”
With Antetokounmpo absent, Milwaukee’s challenge was spearheaded by Damian Lillard, who finished with 32 points, while Bobby Portis added 24 off the bench.
In other games on Wednesday, Kevin Durant surpassed Shaquille O’Neal to move into eighth place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list as the Phoenix Suns eased past the Philadelphia 76ers 115-102.
Photo: AP
Durant, eight points behind O’Neal’s tally of 28,596 points before the game, drained a jump shot in the third quarter to move past the former Los Angeles Lakers icon.
“Well deserved,” O’Neal said in a video message to Durant. “It doesn’t stop here... If anybody was gonna pass me, it was definitely gonna be you.”
Durant finished the night with 22 points, while Grayson Allen led the Suns scoring with 32 points, including nine three-pointers.
Photo: Joe Camporeale-USA Today
In San Francisco, the Golden State Warriors bounced back from Monday’s defeat to the New York Knicks to hand the Memphis Grizzlies a 137-116 drubbing.
The Warriors improved to 36-32 and remain 10th in the West.
In Cleveland, the Miami Heat produced a barnstorming finale to pip the Cavaliers 107-104, while the Sacramento Kings eased past the Toronto Raptors 123-89 and the Indiana Pacers swatted aside Detroit 122-103.
Photo: AP
Western Conference leaders the Oklahoma City Thunder breezed past the Utah Jazz 119-107, while the LA Clippers beat the Portland Trail Blazers 116-103.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book