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Archives for March 4, 2024

Celtics Primed for Road Trip

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CLEVELAND – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Cleveland Cavaliers will attempt to cool off the NBA’s hottest team when they play the visiting Boston Celtics on Tuesday night. Boston owns an 11-game winning streak, and has won eight in a row away from home. The Celtics turned in their most impressive half of the season Sunday when they built a 44-point halftime lead en route to a 140-88 home victory over Golden State.

Tuesday’s game will be the start of a five-game road trip that also takes Boston to games against Denver, Phoenix, Portland and Utah.

“We’re gonna have to take it to the road now,” the Celtics’ Derrick White said. “This is the NBA. Got a lot of good teams coming up on the schedule and it’s going to be a good challenge for us.”

Boston’s lead in the Eastern Conference has grown to 8.5 games over the Milwaukee Bucks and nine games over the Cavaliers entering play Monday.

Golden State played soft defense against Boston’s Jaylen Brown on Sunday and paid the price. Brown scored 19 points in the first quarter and 29 in the game, despite not playing in the second half, and was a bit miffed by the Warriors’ defensive approach.

“For the most part my job is to get to the paint,” Brown said. “We got enough 3-point shooters on our team, so I don’t take a lot of 3s for the most part throughout the season because we have enough of that. I get to the paint to open it up for everybody else, but if you want to dare me to shoot we can do that too.

“I thought it was a little disrespectful, but we took advantage of it and didn’t look back.”

Cleveland is coming off Sunday’s night’s 107-98 loss to the New York Knicks. The Cavaliers were without leading scorer Donovan Mitchell, who has missed the past two games with a sore knee. Mitchell is averaging 28.0 points, 6.2 assists and 5.4 rebounds per game this season.

Eckroat Wins in Monday Finish

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PALM BEACH GARDENS – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Austin Eckroat won the weather-delayed Cognizant Classic by three strokes Monday to capture his first career PGA Tour title in the tour’s first event of the season in Florida.

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Eckroat was 15 under through seven holes Sunday when play was suspended due to darkness at PGA National’s Champion course. He added three birdies and a bogey on the back nine Monday morning to card a 4-under 67 for a winning score of 17-under 267.

South Africa’s Erik van Rooyen had been the leader in the clubhouse after finishing at 14 under on Sunday. He posted a final-round low of 63 and tied for second with Australia’s Min Woo Lee (final round 67).

Five players tied for fourth at 13 under, including rookie Jake Knapp (66), who was picked up his first career win at the Mexico Open at Vidanta last week. South Korea’s Kyoung-hoon Lee (66), Cameron Young (66), Ireland’s Shane Lowry (71) and England’s David Skinns (71) were also at 13 under.

–Field Level Media

Celtics Crush GS Warriors

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – A dominant first half allowed the Boston Celtics to extend their winning streak to 11 games by beating the visiting Golden State Warriors 140-88 Sunday.

Boston made 15 of 24 3-point attempts in the first two quarters and led 82-38 at halftime. Boston’s 44-point halftime lead is the largest in the franchise’s history.

The Celtics shot 60 percent from the field in the first half (30 of 50), when they committed one turnover. The Warriors trailed by as many as 45 points in the second quarter. Each team rested its starters for all or most of the second half.

Jaylen Brown led Boston with 29 points, and Jayson Tatum added 27 on his 26th birthday. Boston made 25 of 49 3-pointers (51 percent) in the win.

Lester Quinones tossed in a team-high 17 points for the Warriors, who trailed 115-62 after three quarters. Boston led by as many as 56 points in the fourth.

Steph Curry went 2-of-13 from the field (0-for-9 from 3-point territory) in the first half and finished the game with four points. He did not play in the second half. Klay Thompson (six points) sat out the second half because of a hamstring injury.

The loss ended Golden State’s eight-game road winning streak.

Center Kristaps Porzingis wasn’t available for the Celtics because of a left quad contusion. Porzingis is averaging 20.3 points and 6.9 rebounds in 44 games (all starts) for Boston this season.

The Celtics made 10 3-pointers in the first quarter for a 44-22 advantage. It was 21-21 with 6:05 left in the quarter, but the Celtics scored the next 14 points. Boston scored 23 of the final 24 points in the quarter.

Brown made five of Boston’s 10 3-pointers in the first and finished the quarter with 19 points.

The Celtics outscored the Warriors 38-16 in the second quarter to build their 44-point halftime lead. Tatum scored 20 points in the second quarter and had 22 points at the half.

It was the second meeting between the teams this season. Golden State earned a 132-126 victory in overtime when it played Boston at home on Dec. 19.

–Field Level Media