Bradley, Celtics Beat Kings To Move Into 3rd In Eastern Conference
BOSTON - The Boston Celtics had a good time at the expense of the defenseless Sacramento Kings on Sunday.
"Whenever you get a chance to run up and down and move the ball like we did tonight, it's fun," guard Avery Bradley said after his 25 points helped the Celtics to a season-high points total in a 128-119 win over the Kings. "And not only that, we were making shots. When everybody's making shots, everybody's happy."
The Kings, who may be on the brink of getting coach George Karl fired, came into Super Bowl Sunday having allowed 116.7 points per game in losing six of their previous seven. The Celtics blew that apart in winning their seventh straight home game and their fourth straight and ninth in their last 10 overall.
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"You know one thing, our offense has been pretty good the last 10 games," said Boston coach Brad Stevens. "I don't think we're 128 points good but I think we're probably due for games like that. And you're going to have games where you're - like the other night (in Cleveland) where you're struggling to get a hundred and you're struggling to find the basket."
The win moved the Celtics at least nine games over .500 (31-22) for the first time since they ended the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season at 39-27.
The Celtics started with a 46-point first quarter, the most by an NBA team in a first quarter this season. It was the Celtics' first 46-point quarter since 1996 and their first 46-point first quarter since 1982. They had 74 points in the first half, the first time they'd done that since 2009.
Boston threatened to blow a 21-point third-quarter lead, the Kings (21-30) getting as close as five with 1:40 remaining. But guard Isaiah Thomas, taken by the Kings as the 60th and final pick of the 2011 draft before he left for Phoenix as a free agent, scored nine points and dished out his ninth assist of the game in the final 1:50 to ensure the win.
"It was huge," said Stevens.
Boston had 34 assists on 51 baskets, went 13-for-24 from 3-point range and survived despite a season-high 24 turnovers.
Thomas finished with 22 points and four rebounds on his 27th birthday. Bradley, whose last-second 3-pointer defeated the Cavaliers in Cleveland on Friday night, again played well, forward Jared Sullinger matched his season high with 21 and center Tyler Zeller came off the bench and posted a season-high 17 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots for the Celtics (31-22).
Big man DeMarcus Cousins, the man in the middle of all the first Karl rumors, scored 16 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter and had seven rebounds and six assists. He is averaging 31 points per game in the last 18 games.
"We're in a losing mode," said Karl, whose team has lost three straight, the last two by the same defenseless score. "We're losing games, but our basketball has not been bad basketball. It's been not good enough to win basketball, which happens in the NBA every night. Just because you lose doesn't mean you don't play good basketball."
Guard Rajon Rondo, the former Celtic making his second return trip to Boston, had 14 points, five assists and six steals, while guards Marco Belinelli and Darren Collison both had 16 points and rookie center Willie Cauley-Stein 15 in the loss.
Asked after the game about Thomas, Rondo said, "Obviously, he's the guy. He's the All-Star of the team. They have a lot of glue guys that make the guy go, but the plays he's able to make out there especially at his height (5 foot 9), it's hard. He's been unstoppable this year."
Rondo received an ovation during the introductions but then heard boos when he had the ball. "It's always great to play here," he said.
NOTES: Sacramento coach George Karl, whose job apparently continues to hang by a thread, said: "I don't have any control over what other people are thinking or saying. That's their storm. My preference would be it wouldn't be there. But there's always energy today. Then once something gets out, it magnifies and grows and becomes a storm. That's not my storm. My storm is the Boston Celtics." He added, "I don't think I'm in limbo." ... As part of Black History Month, both teams wore No. 11 Cooper T-shirts in honor of Chuck Cooper, the first African-American ever drafted by the NBA - by the Celtics in 1950. ... The Celtics will try to beat the snow out to Milwaukee for Tuesday night's game and then host their former coach, Doc Rivers, and his Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday, while the Kings are at Cleveland on Monday night.