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NBA Scores: Boston Celtics Beat Cavaliers as LeBron Sits
Gerald Green scored 25 points and Al Jefferson added 24 and 7 rebounds as the Boston Celtics (23-50) and beat the Cleveland Cavaliers (44-30) 98-96 who were playing without LeBron James.
Boston started the game on a 9-0 run and were able to push their lead to 28-14 behind ten points from Ryan Gomes. Eric Snow closed the quarter with a jumper to cut the Celtics lead to twelve.
The Cavaliers opened the second quarter with an 11-2 run and Boston’s lead was down to three. After Leon Powe hit a pair of free-throws for the Celtics the Cavaliers ran off five straight to tie the score at 32-32. Both sides traded buckets through the remainder of the half but it was Boston who took a 53-49 advantage into the locker room.
After Gomes bumped the Celtics lead to eight with 6:46 left in the third the Cavaliers tried to regroup with a timeout. Cleveland then went on an 8-3 run and cut their deficit to three but less than two minutes later the Celtics were back up by ten. By the end of the third Boston’s advantage was up to 80-69.
Cleveland used a 9-0 run early in the fourth to get within two and when Anderson Varejao hit a 16-footer with 6:05 remaining the Cavs had an 86-84 lead. Zydrunas Ilgauskas kept the Cavaliers up by two with 41 seconds left in the game but Al Jefferson tied the score at 96-96 and Delonte West drew a foul with one second remaining and buried both free-throws to win the game.
