Garnett helps Celtics to seventh straight win
Kevin Garnett scored 26 points and made a key jumper in the final minute to lead the Boston Celtics to a 97-93 win over the Houston Rockets, at TD Banknorth Garden.
Paul Pierce had 19 points and seven assists, while Rajon Rondo scored 13 and had nine assists of his own for Boston, which won its seventh in a row. Scot Pollard chipped in 10 points off the bench in the win.
Bonzi Wells had 25 points coming off the bench for the Rockets, who have dropped two in a row. Yao Ming finished with 19 points and 13 boards for Houston, while Rafer Alston scored 18.
Though the Celtics held a 20-point lead at one point, the game came down to a tight fourth quarter and the final few plays.
Alston's jumper with 1:02 left drew the Rockets within 94-91. On the Celtics' next possession, James Posey missed a three, and Ray Allen grabbed the rebound.
The ball made its way around to Garnett, who drained a shot to put the Celtics up five with 22 ticks left. That proved to be enough cushion, as Garnett then blocked a Luther Head jumper on the other end, and Alston missed a three with 12 seconds remaining.
"I think we got careless with the ball a bit and we weren't as sure with our passes," Houston's Shane Battier said. "And obviously, it helps when (Garnett) is roaming back there. He's such a great center fielder, especially late when it gets physical, you really have to make strong moves to finish down there."
Said Celtics head coach Doc Rivers: "Great win, obviously, and tough, because you could see the energy just slowly seeping away...And these are the games that are tough because I can see it in shoot-around, I could just see it in the locker room before the game, everybody was flat."
The Celtics were down five very early in the game, but used a 19-2 run to seize control. Allen had seven points, and Garnett six in the stretch.
Kendrick Perkins capped it with a layup to put Boston up 21-9, and the Celtics took a 30-16 lead into the second quarter.
Boston increased its lead in the second, and went up 40-20 with 8:30 left when Eddie House and Glen Davis made consecutive buckets. But from there, Houston went on an 11-2 run, and was down just 42-31 on a Wells dunk with 4:27 left. Wells had seven points in the run.
The margin stayed there, and Boston took a 53-42 lead into the break. The Rockets were able to fight back and stay close coming out of halftime, and trimmed Boston's lead to 76-68 at the end of the third quarter.
Houston completed the comeback shortly into the final stanza, as the team rattled off 11 straight points. Alston had five points in the span, and Luis Scola capped it with two free throws to put Houston ahead, 81-78, with 8:43 left.
Game Notes
Boston shot 53.2 percent for the game, while Houston had a 42.2 percent mark... The Rockets had a 41-34 rebounding edge.
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