BOSTON, Massachusetts: Carmelo Anthony won his much-anticipated showdown with Kevin Garnett on Thursday, scoring 28 points to lead the New York Knicks to an 89-86 NBA victory over the Celtics in Boston.
J.R. Smith also played a key role for the Knicks. Although he shot just 3-of-16 from the field, Smith delivered a crucial three-pointer and forced a key turnover in the finishing stretch to help the Knicks overcome Boston guard Rajon Rondo’s fourth triple-double of the season.
Rondo scored a team-high 23 points with 11 assists and 10 rebounds, but couldn’t prevent the Celtics from losing a season-worst fifth straight game.
The Knicks’ victory was their first in Boston since 2006, ending a 13-game losing streak on the Celtics’ court. Anthony endured another tough shooting night, making just 11-of-28 from the field. But he helped the Knicks avenge their defeat by the Celtics on January 7 at Madison Square Garden, where things got heated between Anthony and Garnett.
An exchange between the two during that game prompted Anthony to confront Garnett after the contest, for which the Knicks star was suspended one game by the NBA.
Garnett had a quiet scoring night, finishing with eight points. But he grabbed 12 rebounds. Paul Pierce added 22 points for the Celtics.
Amare Stoudemire added 15 points and nine rebounds off the bench for the Knicks, while Jason Kidd scored 12 points and Iman Shumpert 10.
Raptors 97, Magic 95: At Orlando, Florida, DeMar DeRozan swished a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer as Toronto fought off a late-game charge by Orlando.
DeRozan led Toronto with 22 points, followed by Amir Johnson with 21 points and 10 rebounds. It was Johnson’s sixth double-double of the season.
The victory gave the Raptors a four-game season sweep of Magic, who dropped their fourth game in a row.
Nikola Vucevic led Orlando with 19 points and 14 rebounds. Arron Afflalo added 16 points and Glen Davis had 15.
The Magic have lost 15 of their last 17 overall.
Suns 93, Clippers 88: At Phoenix, Goran Dragic scored 19 of his 24 points in the first half and the Phoenix Suns held on to beat the Los Angeles Clippers 93-88 on Thursday night, improving to 2-0 under interim coach Lindsey Hunter.
Marcin Gortat added 15 points, including two free throws with 23.3 seconds left. Luis Scola and Markieff Morris had 14 apiece for the Suns, who had not won two in a row since a season-high, four-game winning streak ended on Dec. 19.
The Clippers, who lost their third straight, were without Chris Paul for the fifth time in seven games because of a bruised right kneecap. The team is 3-2 without him.
Jamal Crawford led Los Angeles with 21 points.
