Boston Celtics Defeats San Antonio Spurs

The Boston Celtics continued its winning streak, defeating teams from the western states.

Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks 94-90, on Thursday, to complete its fourth winning streak at the American Airlines Center. Mavericks claimed six victories (29 wins in total) in the home games this season.

The Celtics have beaten the San Antonio Spurs and the Houston Rockets as well as the Dallas Mavericks. Since the Sacramento Kings beat these three in November 2001, no team had defeated them for six years and four months.

The Celtics “Big Three” led the attack, scoring more than 20 points. Kevin Garnett had 22 points and 13 rebounds while Paul Pierce added 22 and 13. Ray Allen, who missed three matches due to his ankle injury, made a nice comeback scoring 21 points.

Dirk Nowitzki had 22 points and 19 rebounds, and Jason Kidd had nine assists, 11 rebounds. Josh Howard added 24 points, which helped the team to cruise for most of the second half but couldn’t pull it out at the end.

Things got snippy in the fourth quarter, as the Celtics fell behind by seven points, but Pierce and Garnett successfully turned the match to 81-80. Nowitzki’s free throw put Celtics behind, but Allan’s three-point shot and James Posey’s two free throws in the last 14 seconds of the game led the team to a 92-88 victory.

The Spurs defeated the Chicago Bulls 102-80 in an away game, winning its first after four consecutive defeats. Tim Duncan scored 22 points and 10 rebounds while Tony Parker had 23 points and six assists.

LA Laker’s Kobi Brian had 27 points, leading his team to beat the Utah Jazz 106-95 to lead the West Coast Conference.

hic@donga.com