Washington (AFP) – Bloodied and bruised, the defending champion Boston Celtics outlasted Orlando to seize command of their NBA playoff series on Wednesday while the Cleveland Cavaliers held off Miami, keeping their series lead.
Jaylen Brown scored 36 points, going 5-of-7 from three-point range, and the host Celtics defeated the Magic 109-100 despite being without injured star forward Jayson Tatum. Latvian center Kristaps Porzingis scored 20 points despite suffering a bloody forehead gash in the third quarter and matched Brown and Al Horford with 10 rebounds each for the Celtics, who took a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven series entering game three in Orlando on Friday.
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At Cleveland, the East top seed Cavaliers held off Miami 121-112 as Donovan Mitchell scored 17 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter to give the hosts a 2-0 series advantage. The Heat, who had trailed by 19 points, went on an 11-1 run to pull within 101-99 before Mitchell caught fire late. Miami’s Tyler Herro scored 33 in a losing cause.
The Celtics played without leading scorer Tatum, who missed an NBA playoff game for the first time in his career after 114 appearances, due to a right wrist bone bruise suffered in the series opener. “We’ve got a lot of talent so it just comes down to being ready to go,” Brown said. “We came out and were aggressive. KP looked good. We’ve just got to look forward to game three.”
The Celtics were 8-2 in the regular season without six-time All-Star forward Tatum, both losses coming to Orlando. “They are a good young team. We’ve just got to take care of the ball a little bit better,” Brown said. “We know they’re going to keep going, they’re not going to give up, so we’ve just got to keep playing basketball and let the outcome be determined by us.”
Tatum, also Boston’s assists and rebounds leader, suffered the injury after landing awkwardly following a dunk when he was fouled by Orlando’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in game one. Late in the second quarter of game two, Caldwell-Pope tripped over Horford and both players were restrained before the incident escalated.
The Celtics led 50-47 at half-time, went on an 11-0 run early in the third quarter and answered a 9-2 Magic run with an 11-0 spurt for a 72-58 lead, a Brown slam dunk and one-handed jumper capping the run. Porzingis went to the locker room in the final seconds of the third quarter after being struck by the left elbow of Orlando center Goga Bitadze, the Georgian opening a bloody gash in the Boston big man’s forehead. Referees ruled a flagrant foul on the play and Porzingis returned to the court with a large bandage over the cut, shot the free throws and went back to the locker room.
Boston led 81-71 entering the fourth quarter and the Magic got no closer than five points in the fourth quarter. Porzingis returned to Boston’s bench after taking five stitches and with a smaller bandage and was back on the court with 7:15 remaining. Paolo Banchero led Orlando with 32 points while Franz Wagner added 25.
– Cavs outlast Heat – Cleveland also had 21 points from Darius Garland and 20 from Evan Mobley to go ahead 2-0 with game three in Miami on Saturday. “Build on what we’ve been doing,” Mitchell said of Cleveland’s game plan. “We had a few lapses. They capitalized. We’ve got to be ready for a hostile environment down in Miami and take care of business on the road.”
The Cavaliers went on a 20-4 run in the second quarter to grab a 53-34 lead, with Sam Merrill and Max Strus each hitting two three-pointers in the run. After Miami trimmed the Cavs’ lead to 101-99 with 4:25 remaining, Mitchell seized command. “Just trying to find my rhythm,” Mitchell said. “At the beginning I was creating for everybody else. Then when they started staying home (defensively) I started being aggressive. My job is just to lead every single night in any way possible. Tonight it was go score.”
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