HOOPS

Celtics take 3-1 series lead

DT · May 15, 2024, 12:20 AM

JAYSON Tatum powers his way to a 33-point performance to lead the Boston Celtics to a 109-102 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 2 of their NBA Eastern Conference playoff series. — LAUREN LEIGH BACHO/agence france-presse

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — The Boston Celtics fought off short-handed Cleveland to take a 3-1 stranglehold in their National Basketball Association playoff series Monday while Oklahoma City leveled their series with Dallas.

Jayson Tatum scored 33 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and Jaylen Brown added 27 points for the Celtics, who beat the Cavaliers, 109-102, for a 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal.

The Celtics will try to finish off the series at home on Wednesday.

Western Conference top seeds Oklahoma City head home tied 2-2 with the Mavericks after a furious fourth-quarter rally carried them to a 100-96 victory in Dallas.

Oklahoma City trailed most of the night in the face of a stout Dallas defensive effort that included 13 blocked shots.

But the Thunder broke through in the fourth quarter, tying it at 86-86 on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s fadeaway jump shot with 4:02 to play.

Rookie Chet Holmgren followed with a three-pointer that gave the Thunder the lead for good.

Dallas had the deficit down to one point with 10.1 seconds left, but Holmgren and Gilgeous-Alexander each made a pair of free throws and the Thunder closed it out.