NBA champions the Boston Celtics, fueled by 32 points from Jayson Tatum, on Friday bounced back from an overtime defeat with a gritty 124-109 victory over the Charlotte Hornets.
Tatum added 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the season, while Jaylen Brown scored 25 points with six rebounds and five assists in a physical game that saw tensions erupt in the fourth quarter when former Celtics player Grant Williams sent Tatum sprawling with a shoulder-to-shoulder check.
Williams was ejected, but Brown and others were clearly angered.
Photo: AFP
Less than a minute later, LaMelo Ball was assessed a flagrant foul for crowding in under Tatum as the Celtics star attempted a three-pointer. Charlotte’s Miles Bridges was ejected in the final minutes for punching the ball.
It all could make for fireworks with the teams scheduled to face off again yesterday, but Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla was not fazed.
“I loved it,” said Mazzulla, who received a technical foul as did his Hornets counterpart Charles Lee. “It was tremendous.”
Photo: AP
“Physical game, guys handled it well, great poise, great execution,” added Mazzulla, who was particularly pleased with Tatum’s response to the foul by Williams.
“I’m glad he’s fine,” Mazzulla said. “What I liked most is how he jumped right up, didn’t lay around ... went to the free-throw line and did his business.”
In Cleveland, Ohio, Darius Garland scored 25 points, while Donovan Mitchell added 22 as the Cleveland Cavaliers remained unbeaten with a 120-109 win over the visiting Orlando Magic.
Cleveland have won their first six games to start the season, matching the franchise’s best start since 2016-2017.
Evan Mobley had 14 points and 12 rebounds, Caris LeVert scored 13 points and Jarrett Allen grabbed 11 rebounds for Cleveland, who have scored at least 110 points in all six games under new coach Kenny Atkinson.
Cleveland never trailed in what was a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference first-round playoff series, which the Cavaliers won in seven games.
Orlando trailed by as many as 22 points in the third quarter and lost their second straight game.
Jalen Suggs scored a career-high 28 points, Franz Wagner and Tristan da Silva added 17 apiece, and Moritz Wagner had 14.
The Magic were without All Star forward Paolo Banchero, who sustained a torn right oblique in their loss to the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday.
Elsewhere on Friday, it was:
‧ Hawks 115, Kings 123
‧ Nets 120, Bulls 112
‧ Pelicans 125, Pacers 118
‧ Pistons 98, Knicks 128
‧ Raptors 125, Lakers 131
‧ T’wolves 119, Nuggets 116
‧ Trail Blazers 114, Thunder 137
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds said it felt like an “impossible dream” when fellow Hollywood A-lister Rob McElhenney first floated the idea of buying soccer club Wrexham, along with a pitch for a documentary. The ultimate goal was reaching the Premier League. Four years after they purchased the north Wales outfit, Wrexham are one league away from achieving their lofty goal after a 3-0 win over Charlton Athletic on Saturday saw them promoted for a record third consecutive time. “We were standing there doing a press conference four years ago, and said our goal is to make it to the Premier League, and
RSS