Cleveland Cavaliers comeback stuns Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns hold off Denver Nuggets

CLEVELAND – As Dean Wade’s confidence grew, so did the rim of the basket.

And it was all thanks to the forward that the Cleveland Cavaliers overturned a 22-point fourth-quarter deficit to snap the Boston Celtics’ 11-game winning streak with a 105-104 victory on March 5.

A week after coming back from 10 points down in the final period to defeat the Dallas Mavericks, Cleveland conjured an even more remarkable late show to stun Boston, the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) overall leaders.

The Celtics looked to be cruising to another win after leading 93-71 early in the fourth quarter at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. But Wade erupted for 20 points in the final frame, draining a string of three-pointers to haul his team back into the contest.

“The rim looked really big. It looked like a swimming pool. It’s a great feeling. It’s kind of like your mind is quiet and the rim looks huge,” he said.

Wade, who finished with 23 points off the bench, made the winning lay-up with 19 seconds remaining to put Cleveland ahead after Kristaps Porzingis’ free throw had helped the Celtics take a 104-103 lead.

Boston thought they had been thrown a lifeline when Jayson Tatum appeared to be fouled as he went for a late shot.

But the call was overturned in Cleveland’s favour and time ran out to give the Cavaliers a victory made all the more impressive given the absence of key starters Donovan Mitchell and Max Strus.

“It feels good, my teammates had the trust in me to make those shots. Them just having that belief in me gave me the confidence and motivated me, and luckily they went in,” Wade added.

Boston were left wondering where it had all gone wrong after an extraordinary late collapse.

“We just went cold,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said.

“I thought we had some good possessions where we didn’t make the shot. But credit to them – Wade played really well and they made plays down the stretch.”

Tatum led all scorers with 26 points, while Porzingis added 24 and Jaylen Brown 21.

The Celtics remain comfortably on top of the Eastern Conference despite the loss with a 48-13 record. The Milwaukee Bucks are second in the standings at 41-21, while Cleveland are third after improving to 40-21.

The drama in Cleveland was rivalled by a thrilling battle at Ball Arena, where the Phoenix Suns recovered from blowing a 22-point third-quarter lead to defeat the Denver Nuggets 117-107 in overtime.

Kevin Durant poured in 35 points for Phoenix while Grayson Allen added 28, including eight three-pointers to help the Suns over the line.

But Phoenix almost blew their chances of victory after a fourth-quarter display which saw them shoot five-of-24 from the field.

They rediscovered their shooting touch in overtime, however, outscoring Denver 15-5 to close out the win.

“We missed like 10 straight shots in the fourth quarter... but that’s the name of the game, you just stick with it. In overtime we were able to get stops, rebound and get easy shots,” Durant said.

Jamal Murray topped the Denver scorers with 28 points while Nikola Jokic had 25 points, 16 rebounds and five assists. AFP