|
Celtics maintain dominant home form with win over Cavaliers
2007-12-03
The Boston Celtics posted an 80-70 home win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, who struggled without the injured LeBron James on Sunday. Ray Allen led the league-leading Celtics (14-2) with 20 points, but neither team shot well. Boston made just 37.5 percent of its field-goal attempts and had 15 turnovers. Cleveland sank 32.9 percent of its shots and gave up the ball 18 times. The victory, the ninth in a row at home for Boston, did little to impress coach Doc Rivers. "There will be no video on this game, hopefully," Rivers told reporters. "It was a win and we'll take the win." Allen scored 13 of his points in the first half, which ended with Boston ahead 43-39. Daniel Gibson's three-pointer brought Cleveland within four at 48-44 with 8:59 to play but the next eight points belonged to Boston. Kevin Garnett hit two free throws, then Rajon Rondo went on a six-point scoring run, hitting a driving layup off an assist by Paul Pierce then scoring on consecutive jumpers. Rondo finished with 12 points, Garnett scoring nine and Pierce seven. "We just didn't have the energy we normally come out with," Pierce, who was 2 of 7 from the field, told reporters. Zydrunas Ilgauskas topped Cleveland with 12 points and 13 rebounds. James, who sprained his left index finger on Tuesday, watched the game from the Cleveland bench. His is day-to-day. DUNCAN HURT *Tim Duncan bruised his right knee and sprained his right ankle in a first-half fall in the San Antonio Spurs' 100-79 home win over the Portland Trail Blazers. Tests on Monday will determine how long he will be out, the Spurs said. "I hope he won't be out for very long, but he will probably miss a little bit of time," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich told reporters. Tony Parker had 27 points and eight assists in San Antonio's third successive win. *The Golden State Warriors streaked to their sixth consecutive victory by beating the Seattle SuperSonics 109-96 . *Carmelo Anthony scored 30 points and Marcus Camby pulled down 21 rebounds in the Denver Nuggets' 115-89 home win over the Miami Heat. Dwyane Wade was held to 13 points and Shaquille O'Neal scored only six. *Grant Hill and Amare Stoudemire each had 28 points and Steve Nash handed out 15 assists in the Phoenix Suns' 115-104 road win over the New York Knicks. Eddy Curry and Stephon Marbury led the Knicks with 21 each. Marbury's father, who attended the game, died afterward in a New York hospital, The New York Times reported on its Web site. *Richard Hamilton had 19 points and Chauncey Billups 18 as the Detroit Pistons topped the New Jersey Nets 118-95. *Hedo Turkoglu's three-pointer put Orlando in the lead to stay and the Magic beat the Los Angeles Lakers 104-97. Rashard Lewis led Orlando with 18 points with Turkoglu getting 14. Kobe Bryant scored 28 for the Lakers. (Writing by Gene Cherry in Salvo, North Carolina; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
| 
