BOSTON — The Celtics capped a day of Boston celebration with a 104-100 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night.
Hours after the city held its latest duck boat parade, this one for the NFL champion Patriots, the Celtics won for the second time in 24 hours, following a wire-to-wire win over the Knicks in New York with another strong effort.
With Patriots owner Robert Kraft and some of his players among a crowd that included all kinds of empty seats, the Celtics (18-30) went 9 of 13 from 3-point range in the first half and then survived after blowing a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter to sweep the two-game season series from the Nuggets.
Forward Jared Sullinger, who didn’t start for the second straight home game after again arriving late for the walk-through, snapped a 100-100 tie with two free throws with 22.8 seconds left.
Forward Jae Crowder then stole the Denver inbounds pass after a timeout and guard Avery Bradley bagged two free throws with 18.3 on the clock. The Nuggets, losing their fourth straight and 11th in the last 12 games, threw the ball away again.
Bradley, coming off a big game in New York, finished with 17 points. Guard Marcus Thornton came off the bench to score 17, going 4 of 5 from 3-point range. Center Ty Zeller and subs Sullinger and Crowder had 14 apiece. Sullinger had seven rebounds and Crowder six.
Rookie guard Marcus Smart scored just four points and missed two free throws with 15.2 seconds left.
Guard Ty Lawson, who was injured and didn’t play the first time the teams met last month, scored 17 of his 23 points and had five of his eight assists in the second half for the Nuggets (19-31).
Denver forward Kenneth Faried left the game midway through the third quarter after taking a shot to either the left side of his head or his eye. He returned to the floor in the fourth quarter and finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Guard Arron Affalo had 18 points.
Thornton came off the bench to lead the first-half long-range barrage, hitting all three of his treys en route to 12 first-half points. The distance shooting allowed the Celtics to come from eight points down to go up by as many as 12 points and by 10 at the half.
After the 9-of-13 in the first half, Boston finished 12 of 28 from 3-point range and Denver was just 4 of 24.
The crowd of 15,126 was held down by at least three factors — the Patriots celebration, a massive traffic snarl the previous night caused by snow banks and the Nuggets being the visiting team.
NOTES: Celtics F Jared Sullinger arrived late for the walk-through for a second straight home game. He again cited traffic, this time on the day of the Patriots’ victory parade. His punishment was again not starting. “It’s a great decision by Coach,” said Sullinger, who has started all but these two punishment games. Said coach Brad Stevens, “It’s the second time in two years. It just happens to be the second time in (four) days. I said it the other day: I don’t think it’s an issue. But he just has to be here. Our precedent is set.” … G Jameer Nelson, who was with the Celtics briefly recently before moving on to Denver, suffered an Achilles injury Tuesday night and was out. … The Nuggets are at Detroit on Friday night while the Celtics host Philadelphia. … Denver was working on bringing F Joffrey Lauvergne, acquired in a draft-night deal last June, back from overseas. The Nuggets have a roster spot open. … Patriots owner Robert Kraft and several players, including Super Bowl hero Malcolm Butler, were on hand and saluted at the end of the first quarter. Shortly after the start of the second quarter, the crowd broke into a chant of “Mal-colm But-ler.”