Garnett lifts Celtics over Rockets

BOSTON: Kevin Garnett scored 26 points and Paul Pierce added 19 to lead the Boston Celtics to their seventh victory in a row, a 97-93 triumph over Houston on Wednesday.

Garnett scored nine points in a four-minute span of the fourth quarter to spark the Celtics, who own the National Basketball Association's best record at 27-3 after completing an unbeaten four-game swing on the US west coast.

Garnett scored with 74 seconds remaining to lift the Celtics ahead 94-89 and added a final basket from 19 feet with 22 seconds to play.

"My gas is high. You know when you play the best in the league you can't go in with low gas. You know you got to have a lot of high octane," Garnett said, enjoying the support of a home crowd.

"I fed off this building. These fans are like the spark plug and I just plugged in and I didn't even think what I was doing," Garnett said.

"Paul was aggressive and I had open shots, and early I hesitated, but in the fourth quarter I just went for it."

Yao Ming scored 19 points and grabbed 13 points for the Rockets while Bonzi Wells came off the Houston bench to score 25 points in the absence of injured Rockets star Tracy McGrady, out for a fourth game in a row with left knee tendinitis.

Yao, the Chinese star center who has ignited the offense in McGrady's absence, blamed his 7-of-20 shooting for the team's struggles against the team with the NBA's best record.

"In the first quarter, I think I hurt the team by (shooting) 2-for-10 on field goals," said Yao. "The first quarter we only had 16 points. In the second half, Bonzi, Rafer (Alston), they really stood out and played a good game. We need to keep doing that."

The Rockets fell behind by 20 points early but rallied later before the Celtics pulled away down the stretch.

"They played really well in the first quarter," Wells said. "They really jumped on us and sent a message to us. This is the NBA and we were hoping we could make a run. We did, got a few stops and got ourselves back in the game.

"Down the stretch, they made plays, got a couple of offensive boards, and broke our back."

In Washington, The Detroit Pistons turned in another dominating performance with a 106-93 win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday, their 10th victory in a row.

Detroit (25-7) held a comfortable lead for the entire second half and had seven players in double figures to extend their longest winning streak since an 11-game run two years ago.

Richard Hamilton's 20 points made him the 10th-leading scorer in Pistons history, and he added nine assists and seven rebounds.

"Whenever you get in a situation like we're in now, it's because you take it one game at a time," Detroit coach Flip Saunders told reporters.

"We've been here before. We've been on some runs, so it's not like they are uncommon."

The Pistons, who have an average recent-victory margin of 16.8 points, were never threatened by the Wizards (15-15), who have not beaten a team with a winning record in over a month.

In Cleveland, LeBron James scored 32 of his 36 points in the second half to lead Cleveland past Atlanta 98-94.

Larry Hughes, whose shooting woes have been an ongoing problem for Cleveland, made a crucial jumper with 2:33 left to put the Cavaliers ahead 85-82.

James took only five shots in the first half. But after 13 points in the third quarter, James scored 19 of Cleveland's 22 over the last 6:51.

In Miami, guard Mo Williams was outstanding as he led the Bucks with 25 points and nine assists in the team's 103-98 victory over the Miami Heat.

The game was close through three quarters, but Milwaukee scored the first nine points of the fourth to take an 80-67 lead with 8 minutes, 58 seconds left and held on from there.

Five other Bucks scored in double figures including Charlie Villanueva and Charlie Bell who scored 15 and 12 points, respectively, and provided a big spark off the bench.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/04/2008 page24)