BOSTON — The Boston Celtics stormed from eight points down in the final 3:22 to their 13th straight home victory, a stunning 105-104 win over the floundering New York Knicks on Friday night.
Avery Bradley scored on a tough drive for the winning points with 17.7 seconds remaining.
Evan Turner had put the Celtics ahead with 36.4 seconds left, only to have Carmelo Anthony answer for the Knicks with 21.4 seconds on the clock.
Anthony, who scored 30 points, had a final chance after Bradley’s basket, dribbling slowly into the frontcourt before he was fouled by Jae Crowder with 3.3 seconds left. Anthony wound up firing a long 3-pointer off the backboard as the game ended.
The victory gave the Celtics (38-25) their longest home winning streak since 2008-09 and 16 wins in their last 20 games.
Crowder scored six of Boston’s 13 late points and also put the clamps on Anthony, who had outplayed him at times earlier in the game.
Isaiah Thomas had 32 points and eight assists in his second straight 30-point game for Boston. Turner finished with a season-high 21 points, eight rebounds and three assists off the bench. Crowder wound up with 20 points and eight boards.
Center Tyler Zeller, also coming off the bench, scored the Celtics’ first eight points of the fourth quarter and finished with 12 points and five rebounds.
Anthony was 13 of 27 from the floor and also had seven rebounds and four assists. Arron Afflalo scored 17 points, rookie Kristaps Porzingis added 15 points, big man Robin Lopez had 12 points and 12 rebounds and Jose Calderon contributed 13 points and five assists.
The Celtics haven’t lost at home since Jan. 6 and finished a sweep of a five-game homestand.
Anthony had just three points in the first nine minutes but 13 by the end of the first quarter.
The Knicks were down by five early and led by four at the end of one quarter.
New York’s lead grew to 11 on a three-point play by Anthony and the Celtics scored the last four points of the half to trail by nine at intermission.
Anthony connected right out of the break. When Porzingis nailed a trey, making the Knicks 7 of 12 from behind the arc, the lead was 10 and the Celtics called a timeout 53 seconds into the third quarter.
Boston missed 11 of its first 12 3-pointers before Thomas hit one with 1:03 left in the first half. Boston then made its only two 3-point shots of the third quarter, both during an 18-point outburst in a 3:18 span of the quarter.
NOTES: The Knicks played their first game since F Carmelo Anthony told a heckling fan to ask owner James Dolan for a refund — and then apologized, saying, “We are all frustrated by the team’s recent results — everyone, including me, my teammates, coaches and the fans. I should not have responded the way I did.” … Anthony, on the 3-15 run after the Knicks were 22-22: “I don’t know why. I don’t know how, it just went downhill from there.” … The Celtics, 10-4 in the second half of back-to-backs this season, have a tough back end this time, visiting the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night, while the Knicks host the Detroit Pistons. … Celtics coach Brad Stevens, on his team before Friday night’s game: “It is a fun group. The way that they play, I laugh sometimes, because we do some pretty haphazard things and even I’m entertained over there sometimes when I have no idea what’s going to happen.” … Boston assigned rookie G R.J. Hunter to the Maine Red Claws of the D-League to get some playing time.
Suns 102, Magic 84
ORLANDO — Unheralded forward Alex Len scored a career-high 31 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in leading the surprising Phoenix Suns to a 102-84 victory over the Orlando Magic Friday night.
The Suns (16-46) snapped a 17-game road losing streak only a day after being throttled by the Heat in Miami.
Len, the third-year forward from the Ukraine, reached double figures in both scoring and rebounding for the fourth consecutive game.
Tyson Chandler had 10 points and 12 rebounds, and Devin Booker had 14 points and six assists for the Suns. Ronnie Price had 14 points and five rebounds, and Archie Goodwin had 10 points.
The Magic (27-34) were led by Elfrid Payton, who had 19 points and 11 assists. Nikola Vucevic had 15 points and 12 rebounds. Evan Fournier scored 12 points after returning from a three-game absence. Rookie Mario Hezonja contributed 12 points.
The Suns outscored the Magic 26-16 in the third period, led by as many as 24 points, and took an 84-66 lead into the fourth. They were never challenged.
They held a 57-50 rebounding edge and hit 35 of 78 shots (44.9 percent) from the field. The Magic made only 35 of 101 (34.7 percent.).
The Suns scored the first 16 points of the second half to take a 74-50 lead. Payton finally scored with 5:21 remaining in the third quarter after the Magic had missed 11 consecutive shots to start the period. Combined with the end of the second quarter, the Suns scored 19 consecutive points.