The Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins were in action on Tuesday night, as the Celtics were in Cleveland to face the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Bruins hosted the New York Islanders at TD Garden.
At Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, the Celtics played without Kyrie Irving (hip) but got 25 points from Jayson Tatum to pick up a 103-96 win over the Cavaliers.
A back and forth first quarter saw Cleveland (11-43) take the biggest lead of five and led by two at 30-28 after 12 minutes. After the Cavs went up six early in the second, Boston (35-19) took over taking the lead on a Jaylen Brown dunk and led by eight at the half. The hosts rallied back about halfway through the third on five straight points by Collin Sexton and a jumper by Alec Burks to take a 70-66 lead. The Celtics would end the quarter strong however to build back to a 10 point lead and held a six point advantage into the final 12 minutes. The Cavs would get within three a few times in the final quarter, but with the score 94-91 Marcus Smart connected on a two point jumper and a three pointer, and then a layup by Tatum pushed it back to 10 and Cleveland only got as close as five the rest of the way.
Tatum added seven rebounds and three blocks to his point total to lead Boston. Gordon Hayward added 18 points, six rebounds, and five assists. Smart had 17 points, five rebounds, and four assists, while Brown also got into double digit scoring with 13 points and seven rebounds. Sexton led Cleveland with a game high 27 points, four rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Burks had 21 points, four rebounds, and two steals. Larry Nance Jr. also chipped in with a double double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. The Celtics are currently in third place in the Eastern Conference, three games behind the Toronto Raptors for second and five games behind Milwaukee for first. Boston will host the LA Lakers on Thursday night.
At TD Garden in Boston, Patrice Bergeron scored a pair of goals in his 1,000th career NHL game and Peter Cehlarik scored a game winning third period goal, to lead the Bruins to a 3-1 win over the Metropolitan Division leading New York Islanders.
Bergeron got things started when he scored his 17th of the season at 2:32 of the second period to make it 1-0 Boston. New York (30-16-6) tied it up though later in the second when Jordan Eberle scored a powerplay marker at 16:40 to make 1-1 through two periods. The Isles had what they thought was a go ahead goal early in the third period, but a challenge by the Bruins on the play went to video replay that confirmed the play offsides and disallowed the go ahead goal. Cehlarik scored what turned into the game winner, his third of the season at 6:34. The Islanders had a four minute powerplay with just over eight minutes left to play when the Bruins Matt Grzelcyk was called for two minor penalties. Boston goalie Tuuka Rask made several key saves to keep the score 2-1 and kill off the double minor. Late in the game with the New York goalie pulled, David Pastrnak had a breakaway on the empty net but just before tapping it in himself he shoveled the puck back to the captain Bergeron who scored his 18th to put the game away with 55 seconds left. Bergeron became just the fifth player in Bruins history to amass at least 1,000 games played for Boston.
Pastrnak and Brad Marchard joined Bergeron with two points on the night each with two assists. Rask made 28 saves to earn the win, while Robin Lehner made 24 stops in the loss. Boston was 0-3 on the powerplay, while New York went 1-5. The Bruins have won back to back games for first time in four weeks, moving their record to 29-17-7. Boston is now in fourth place in the Atlantic Division and fifth in the Eastern Conference, but just two points behind Toronto for second place in each race. The team hits the road to face another New York team when they play the Rangers at Madison Square Garden Wednesday night.
