Ewing Finally Makes a Shot as Knicks Win

Patrick Ewing went 0 for 14 before finally making a shot, but the New York Knicks still defeated the Boston Celtics, 99-97, Sunday at New York.

It was the 14th consecutive loss at Madison Square Garden for the Celtics, who learned earlier Sunday that Paul Pierce’s ankle sprain was worse than previously believed. The Celtics’ leading scorer will be out at least two weeks.

Ewing was 0 for 8 Friday night in his first game back since partially tearing his Achilles’ tendon June 1. Sunday, he finished three for 11 from the field with nine points, seven rebounds and five blocked shots.

He scored his first basket of the season 1:09 into the third quarter on a drive across the lane. The basket drew an extended, loud ovation from the crowd, which Ewing acknowledged with a wave.

Allan Houston scored 26 points for the Knicks but missed two foul shots with 2.1 seconds left--the third time in eight days that he failed at the line in the final seconds.

The Celtics inbounded from midcourt with 1.8 seconds left, trailing 99-97, and got the ball to Antoine Walker 35 feet away from the basket. Trying to free himself from Larry Johnson, Walker lost control of the ball and never got a shot off.

Walker led the Celtics with 24 points.

Utah 103, Toronto 88--Karl Malone had 28 points and 14 rebounds at Toronto as the Jazz extended its winning streak to five games.

The game was the first of a seven-game East Coast swing for the Jazz.

Utah’s stingy defense held the Raptors in check all game. Toronto shot a miserable 35% from the floor--only 24% in the first half. Toronto wasn’t much better from the free-throw line, making only 30 of a season-high 44 attempts.

“We’ve got seven games out here and we needed to start it off with a win,” Malone said. “We never gave them that momentum to get the crowd going. Vince [Carter] was never able to get one of those dunks and whenever you can limit a great artistic team like they are, it plays into our hands.”

Carter had a team-high 16 points, but most of them came when the game was out of reach.