Wizards stun Celtics for 2nd straight game

BOSTON: The NBA-leading Boston Celtics suffered a second consecutive loss to the Washington Wizards, who scored the game's final six points in an 88-83 victory on Monday.

Caron Butler had 21 points and Antawn Jamison added 20 and had 10 rebounds for the Wizards, who went on a 25-6 run to rally for the win.

"When they got up on us, we were like, 'Man, there's still four minutes left, we can come back'," Butler told reporters.

"We just came down and got some key stops, guys converted on some big time plays."

Kevin Garnett paced the Celtics with 23 points with Paul Pierce getting 18 and Ray Allen 16.

"I don't think we stopped playing, we definitely didn't stop playing," Garnett told reporters. "We didn't hit shots when we needed to, didn't get stops when we needed to. It's as simple as that."

Boston, which lost to the Wizards 85-78 on Saturday, dropped to 30-5 for the season.

Kobe Bryant scored a season-high 48 points, including a tiebreaking jumper with four seconds left in overtime, to lift the Los Angeles Lakers to their eighth consecutive win, a 123-121 road victory over the Seattle SuperSonics.

Kevin Martin's 39 points led the Sacramento Kings to a surprising 122-120 home victory that ended the Dallas Mavericks' seven-game winning streak.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/16/2008 page24)