“I felt like the energy, they were just playing harder than us consistently throughout the game”, Bradley said. “But it’s a couple of plays that you barely could sleep on”.
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Jahill Okafor led the 76ers with 19 points and nine rebounds.
The atmosphere was sullen when Hollis Thompson drained his second 3-pointer in four minutes, giving Philadelphia an 11-point lead with 6:16 left.
“We’ll take it, but at the same time, we’ve got a lot of getting better to do”, he said.
The Celtics finally responded with a 9-0 run, capped by a Jared Sullinger 21-footer off an inbounds pass to slice the deficit to 77-75.
Bryant has played 11 in the Lakers (2-12) 14 games thus far and is averaging 15.2 points along with 4.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 30.5 minutes of action. Bad turnovers on back-to-back possessions gave Jae Crowder a chance to put Boston ahead, and he nailed it from the top of the key as the Celtic crowd was rocking.
The Celtics knew how frustrating it would have been to lose.
Houston’s troubles also continued against the Grizzlies as the Rockets lost their third straight to drop to 5-10 overall and 1-3 since coach Kevin McHale was sacked and replaced by J.B. Bickerstaff.
James passed Reggie Miller to move into 18th place in the all-time National Basketball Association scoring lists with a free throw on his sixth point of the game.
“There’s no excuse for that”, Pressey said. “We pay attention. We walk that line of doing what we need to to help educate and discipline anybody and help them understand if the situation were to present itself again how are you going to handle it”. “We’ve splintered in past times when the going gets tough, and the going was definitely tough there”.
The people who antagonized Okafor were probably not 76ers fans.
Thomas scored 11 of his game-high 30 points in the fourth quarter.
In San Antonio, Kawhi Leonard scored 26 points and LaMarcus Aldridge had 18 points and seven rebounds as the Spurs beat Dallas 88-83. A three minute scoreless stretch allowed Boston to trim the deficit to just two.
On Wednesday, they stayed the course defensively but were erratic offensively, turning the ball over or missing open shots or watching as the wildly athletic 76ers swatted their attempts away. “I just try every day to hold that locker room together”.
STUD OF THE NIGHT: Isaiah Thomas.
We spoke with a rep for Jahlil who tells us … “Ever since we’ve had to make some of those moves, and we’ve had mostly young guys, there’s at least a feeling that we’re all moving in one direction … that’s been a good thing”.
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Brown said he tried to lighten the moment when he called a timeout as the Celtics were charging back. They visit Oklahoma City and Cleveland this week, then play nine straight in NY – eight at home and one at the Knicks.
