(Basketball news) The Boston Celtics just about edged the Golden State Warriors as they beat them 121-118. For the Celtics, Jayson Tatum scored 34 points with a career-high 19 rebounds as Jaylen Brown added 16 points, making a 3-pointer with 19 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime. Al Horford had to remember as he scored 20 points with 10 rebounds and three blocked shots, making a key 3-pointer in overtime. For the Warriors, Stephen Curry scored 29 points, Jordan Poole had 24 and Klay Thompson also had 24 before fouling out in overtime. With this result the Celtics maintained their best record in the league.
“The fact of the matter is we lost. We lost the championship,” Tatum said. ”No one win – we can’t bring that back. We can’t go back in time and change that.”
“Al came out and looked like he was 25 today,” Tatum said. ”He came out and set the tone, he really did. And we all kind of followed behind that the rest of the night.”
“Disappointed that we didn’t close the game, but I know we can do this,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. ”Better now than in the playoffs.”
The Phoenix Suns stunned the Brooklyn Nets as they beat them 117-112. For the Suns, Mikal Bridges scored 28 points while Johnson added 19 off the bench as Deandre Ayton had 24 points and 14 rebounds to help them snap a three-game losing streak. Surprise of the day Saben Lee, who is on a 10-day contract, scored 15 points. For the Nets, Kyrie Irving scored 21 points of his 30 points in the fourth quarter as he also had seven rebounds and seven assists. With this result the Suns improved their record to 22-24.
”I just thought he brought a level of juice to the arena that we hadn’t felt in a while,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. ”He got up off the bench and you could feel the fans, the community – `That’s our guy.”’
”Man, I can’t tell you how good it felt to be back out there,” Johnson said.
”Sometimes, the hole is too big to come back from,” Irving said.
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