Celtics go 4-0, top Clippers 106-104

BOSTON: The Boston Celtics held off a late Los Angeles challenge to edge the Clippers 106-104 in the NBA on Sunday, improving to a 4-0 record since losing Rajon Rondo to a season-ending knee injury.
On a day in which the NBA carried on in the shadows of the NFL’s Super Bowl, Miami notched its 10th straight win over Toronto while the Los Angeles Lakers had narrow victory over Detroit.
Boston’s Paul Pierce scored 22 points while Jeff Green and Leando Barbosa each had 14 for the Celtics who clung on to beat the Clippers.
Los Angeles had pulled to 103-101 on a 3-pointer by Eric Bledsoe with 56 seconds remaining. But Avery Bradley drew an offensive foul on Los Angeles’ Jamal Crawford with 26 seconds to go, and Pierce held on to the ball before making a 3-pointer with 2.5 seconds left to clinch the win.
The Clippers were led by Bledsoe, replacing Paul, and Crawford, who made a 3-pointer at the buzzer, with 23 points each.
Miami’s LeBron James scored 30 points and Chris Bosh had 28 against his former team as the Heat downed the Toronto Raptors 100-85.
The Heat clinched the best record in the Eastern Conference through Feb. 3, meaning coach Erik Spolestra, in his fifth season as Miami mentor, will coach the East in the All-Star game for the first time in his career. Had Miami lost, New York Knicks coach Mike Woodson would have been in charge of the East’s bench.
The East and West stars will meet on Feb. 17 at Houston, Texas.
Spoelstra, 224-132 as an NBA coach, will be opposed by Gregg Popovich, the San Antonio Spurs coach whose team has the best record in the NBA and the Western Conference at 38-11.
Chicago’s Tom Thibodeau and Oklahoma City’s Scott Brooks coached in last year’s All-Star Game and were ineligible for the honor this year as a result.
Rudy Gay led the Raptors with 29 points.
The Los Angeles Lakers won 98-97 at the Detroit Pistons, due in no small part to the efforts of Pau Gasol, who had 23 points and 10 rebounds and contested Detroit’s last-second alley-oop attempt to clinch the win.
The Lakers blew an 18-point third-quarter lead but went back ahead on a three-point play with 1:09 remaining. That gave the Lakers a 98-95 lead, and they held on despite missing four free throws in the final 16.8 seconds.
Kobe Bryant scored 18 points for the Lakers, who have won five of six despite missing the injured Dwight Howard for the past two.
Greg Monroe had 20 points for Detroit.
No structural damage to Duncan’s sore knee
Meantime, San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan underwent an MRI exam on Sunday that showed no structural damage on his sore left knee a day after he was injured in an NBA victory over Washington.
Duncan, who is averaging 17.3 points and a team-high 9.7 rebounds for the Spurs, had missed four games in a row with a knee injury before returning to the court in San Antonio’s 96-86 home triumph.
But in the second quarter of the contest, Duncan suffered the knee injury as well as a mild sprain of his right ankle.
Duncan, the NBA Rookie of the Year in the 1997-98 season, sparked the Spurs to NBA titles in 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007. Only Boston, Chicago and the Los Angeles Lakers have won more crowns than San Antonio.