Short-handed Boston Celtics cruise past Detroit Pistons
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Payton Pritchard of the Boston Celtics goes to the basket while guarded by Marcus Sasser of the Detroit Pistons during the third quarter at TD Garden.
PHOTO: AFP
BOSTON – National Basketball Association (NBA) champions Boston Celtics shrugged off the absence of All-Star Jayson Tatum, raining 20 three-pointers in a lopsided 123-99 home win over the Detroit Pistons on Dec 12.
With Tatum sidelined by a sore right knee, reserve Payton Pritchard stepped up to lead the team scoring with 27 points and 10 assists as they notched a 12th straight victory over the Pistons.
Pritchard drilled seven three-pointers and reached 500 for his career – the 10th Celtic to reach that mark.
“Payton’s been awesome,” NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Jaylen Brown said of his contribution off the bench all season, which has the guard in the conversation for the Sixth Man of the Year award.
“We’ve all seen it coming. We’ve got a lot of talent on this team and he’s capable of doing that each and every night.”
Guard Derrick White also made seven from beyond the arc on the way to 23 points. Centre Kristaps Porzingis scored 19 and Brown chipped in 14 as six Celtics players scored in double figures.
Reserve Luke Kornet was a perfect five-for-five from the field on the way to 12 points to help Boston bounce back from a loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Dec 7.
The Celtics improved to 20-5, one game behind the Cleveland Cavaliers (21-4) atop the Eastern Conference.
The Pistons, coming off a victory over the New York Knicks on Dec 7, also got a strong contribution off the bench as Ronald Holland led Detroit’s scoring with 26 points.
Cade Cunningham, who had his fifth triple-double of the season against the Knicks, scored 18 points with eight rebounds and eight assists, but the Pistons connected on just seven of their 37 three-point attempts.
Over at Kaseya Centre, Tyler Herro scored 23 points and Bam Adebayo added 21 points and 16 rebounds to lead the Miami Heat to a 114-104 victory over the Toronto Raptors. Miami pushed their winning streak to four games, rallying from a 16-point deficit early in the second quarter to lead 58-51 at half-time, after which they never trailed.
RJ Barrett had a triple-double of 13 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists for Toronto, and Gradey Dick scored 22 points.
Miami’s Jimmy Butler, the focus of trade speculation this week, scored 11 points with five rebounds and four assists.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said before the game that the trade talk swirling around Butler would not be a distraction to the player or the team.
“This is this profession,” he said. “You can’t get sick at sea over some narratives that are going on out there.”
Elsewhere, the Sacramento Kings, fuelled by Domantas Sabonis’ 32 points and 20 rebounds, held off the Pelicans 111-109 in New Orleans.
DeMar DeRozan added 29 points for Sacramento, who led by 14 midway through the fourth quarter only for New Orleans to slice the deficit to two on CJ McCollum’s three-point play with 84 seconds remaining.
The Pelicans, led by 36 points from McCollum, came up short on the two ensuing possessions as the Kings held on. AFP
