NBA ROUNDUP : Celtics Outlast Pistons in Overtime, 104-99

The Boston Celtics, who thought they had the game under control with a 10-point lead with three minutes left, needed a last-second basket by Dee Brown to get into overtime against the Detroit Pistons Friday night at Auburn Hills, Mich.

Then Larry Bird took over and helped put the Pistons away for good, 104-99, in the overtime.

Detroit led, 95-93, when Bird hit a tying jumper with 3:36 left. It was still tied with 2:40 to play when Bird’s three-pointer put the Celtics in front for good. Kevin McHale and Reggie Lewis, who scored 29 points, added two free throws each to give Boston a seven-point lead with 1:30 left.

“It was a great effort by Detroit to bring it back in the fourth,” Celtic Coach Chris Ford said. “Our guys just turned it up in overtime.”

Detroit got two quick baskets, but they were out of comebacks.

“We just took over in overtime,” said Bird, who scored 21 points. “We hit our first two or three shots, and that put some pressure on them. We made them take outside shots, and we played some good defense.”

The Celtics thought they had put the game away with a big start to the second half.

After scoring only 38 points in the first half, and trailing by two, the Celtics had 32 points in the third quarter.

Detroit led, 43-40, early in the quarter, but Boston got 10 points from Lewis in a 16-2 run. The Pistons didn’t reach 50 points until 2:37 remained in the quarter, but Isiah Thomas scored six of Detroit’s last eight points, cutting the deficit to 70-59.

Detroit rallied in the final minutes of regulation and took a 93-91 lead on Joe Dumars’ three-pointer with 4.6 seconds to play.

“If I got the ball, I was supposed to go one-on-one with Dee Brown,” Dumars said. “That’s all he gave me.”

But Brown drove to the basket and scored over Thomas with one second left to set up overtime.

Sacramento 125, Dallas 96--Waymond Tisdale scored 10 of his 17 points in the first quarter to lead the Kings at Dallas.

The victory ended a 10-game losing streak for the Kings and extended the Mavericks’ losing streak to 12.

The Kings posted their largest margin of victory on the road since a 123-92 blowout of the New York Nets on Jan. 20, 1977. The 10-game losing streak had matched the team’s longest in the history of the Sacramento era of the franchise.

Sacramento, which placed seven players in double figures, led by Mitch Richmond’s 21 points, won its fifth road game in 35 tries this season.

Indiana 102, Milwaukee 97--Micheal Williams scored six of his 22 points in overtime as the Pacers tied a club record with their ninth consecutive home victory at Indianapolis.

It was a club-record 16th consecutive road loss for the Bucks, who overcame a 17-point second-quarter deficit to take the lead, only to have Indiana tie, 90-90, on Detlef Schrempf’s free throw with 18.7 seconds left in regulation.

The Bucks then held for one shot only to have Moses Malone, who had 21 points, miss a turnaround jumper before the buzzer.

Atlanta 112, Charlotte 110--Paul Graham scored 23 points and the Hawks used a 10-0 spurt in the second half at Charlotte, N.C., to end Charlotte’s nine-game home winning streak.

Kevin Willis had 18 points and 16 rebounds for Atlanta, which won for only the third time in 11 games.

Atlanta led, 110-105, when rookie Larry Johnson, who had 28 points and 19 rebounds, made a three-point basket to get the Hornets to within two points with 1:36 left.

Cleveland 122, Golden State 107--Brad Daugherty, back after missing one game and part of another because of a stomach virus, scored 28 points at Richfield, Ohio, to lead the Cavaliers to their sixth victory in seven games.

Daugherty scored 24 points in the first three quarters and finished with 10 rebounds.

Sarunas Marciulionis scored 20 second-half points and led the Warriors with 24 points. Chris Mullin and Tim Hardaway each had 22 points.

New Jersey 99, Washington 96--Drazen Petrovic and Derrick Coleman each scored 29 points at East Rutherford, N.J., as the Nets won for the third time in their last four games.

The Nets pulled away with 12 consecutive points on three-point baskets in the fourth quarter.