76ers 87, Celtics 85

76ers 87, Celtics 85
By ROB MAADDI
AP Sports Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Allen Iverson missed 14 of his first 18 shots, including a breakaway layup, but finished with 24 points to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to an 87-85 victory over the Boston Celtics on Friday night.
Paul Pierce scored 33 and Vin Baker had 22 for the Celtics, who have lost three straight and four of five.
The Sixers, again playing without Glenn Robinson (ankle) and Derrick Coleman (knee), have won two straight for just the second time this season. Kenny Thomas added 14 points and 12 rebounds.
Pierce scored eight straight points on a dunk and consecutive 3-pointers as Boston tied it at 83 with 1:28 left. Aaron McKie answered with a jumper to give the Sixers an 85-83 lead with 1:05 to go, and Boston let the shot clock expire on its next possession.
After Iverson missed a driving layup, Walter McCarty missed a 3-pointer with 9.5 seconds left. Iverson then iced it with two free throws.
Iverson, back after missing one game with a knee injury, made four of his last five shots and finished 8-for-25. He had a team-high eight assists.
The Celtics were coming off a loss to New Orleans on Wednesday in which they scored a season-low 73 points. They had 66 points through three quarters, but missed 16 of 24 shots in the fourth quarter.
After a basket by Baker gave the Celtics a 68-65 lead to start the fourth, the Sixers went on an 8-0 run and didn't trail again. Iverson hit a 3-pointer to tie it and a jumper for a 71-68 lead.
Consecutive fast-break layups by McKie and Iverson extended Philadelphia's lead to 83-75.
The Celtics took their biggest lead, 51-39, on a jumper by Pierce that capped a 12-4 run with 7.5 seconds left in the first half. John Salmons answered with his second straight 3-pointer right before the buzzer to cut it to 51-42.
Notes: Through the first 12 games, Boston has not been involved in a game in which 100 points were scored -- the longest such streak for the Celtics since the start of the 1953-54 season. ... Iverson missed a wide-open layup in the third quarter. It appeared he couldn't decide whether to dunk or lay it in. A minute later, he made a dunk on a fast break. ... Robinson has missed nine games with a sprained left ankle. Coleman has missed five with a strained left knee. ... The Sixers have won 16 of their last 21 games against Boston. ... Eric Snow is the only Sixers player to start all 13 games. ... Marc Jackson had 12 points and nine rebounds starting in place of Robinson.
Pistons 94, Knicks 85
Eds: SUBS overline to CORRECT score to 94-85 sted 95-85.
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- Chauncey Billups scored 23 points and Richard Hamilton added 21 to lead the Detroit Pistons to their fourth consecutive win, 94-85 Friday over the slumping New York Knicks.
The Knicks played without forward Keith Van Horn, who missed his second game with a sprained right ankle, and lost for the sixth time in seven tries. They never led.
Ben Wallace and Mehmet Okur both had nine rebounds for Detroit.
Kurt Thomas led New York with 16 points and nine rebounds before fouling out with four minutes to play, while Shandon Anderson scored 15 and Charlie Ward had 13.
Detroit led 51-40 at the half, and the teams traded baskets for the first five minutes of the third before the Knicks put together an 10-0 run to narrow the margin to 66-62.
Hamilton's three-point play in the final minute of the period helped Detroit take a 74-66 lead into the fourth.
Billups' 3-pointer moved the margin to 79-69 early in the fourth, and the Knicks never got closer than seven after that.
Notes: Anderson replaced Van Horn in the starting lineup. ... Okur, a native of Turkey, spent most of Thursday making sure his friends and family were safe after the terrorist attacks in Istanbul. ... Wallace and Thomas were given technical fouls for separate fourth-quarter incidents. ... Pistons rookie Darko Milicic, the second pick in the draft, missed his only field goal attempt and has still not scored this season.
Pacers 76, Hornets 75
By BRETT MARTEL
AP Sports Writer
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The Indiana Pacers, with the NBA's best record, stayed unbeaten on the road thanks to a last-second miss by New Orleans rookie David West.
Jermaine O'Neal scored 24 points and Reggie Miller hit a pair of go-ahead free throws with 8.4 seconds left to lift the Indiana Pacers to a 76-75 victory over the Hornets on Friday night.
Ron Artest scored 22 points and O'Neal also had 11 rebounds and five blocks for Indiana, which snapped the Hornets' four-game winning streak.
The Hornets got one last chance with a second left after O'Neal missed a pair of free throws -- the second purposely in an effort to run out the clock. But West just missed converting a backdoor alley-oop pass from Sean Rooks, shooting the ball just a bit too hard off the backboard.
The Pacers have won four straight to improve to 10-2. New Orleans fell to 9-4, the second-best mark in the Eastern Conference.
Baron Davis led New Orleans with 33 points.
The Hornets led 75-74 when Miller, wrestling with David Wesley for position along the baseline, drew a foul that sent Hornets coach Tim Floyd into a stomping rage directed at referee Courtney Kirkland. Miller hit both shots.
Davis' potential game-winning 3-pointer rolled around and out, with O'Neal grabbing the rebound and getting fouled.
Davis was 7-for-10 from 3-point range, P.J. Brown added 14 points, Wesley scored 11 and George Lynch grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.
O'Neal sat out Indiana's last game and was listed as day-to-day with right knee tendinitis. After missing his first five shots, he went 11-for-19 the rest of the way and made most of his open shots from inside 15 feet.
When Artest hit a 3-pointer off the glass at the shot-clock buzzer in the third quarter, the Pacers had opened up their largest lead, 52-44, and seemed ready to pull away. But Davis got the Hornets back in it with his outside shooting. After hitting two straight 3s to cut the score to 52-50, Davis stole the ball from O'Neal near midcourt and hit a straightaway 3 to give the Hornets a 53-52 lead.
Davis would finish with five 3-pointers in the quarter -- a Hornets record -- giving New Orleans a 64-63 lead heading into the final period.
The Hornets led 23-12 early on thanks to a good start by Davis, who opened the scoring by blowing by Miller on a driving layup. But when Davis came out late in the quarter the Hornets went cold, and Davis himself missed his next six shots after returning.
O'Neal scored 10 in the half as the Pacers took the lead with a 23-8 run that included seven Hornets turnovers. Artest hit an off-balance 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Indiana a 42-38 halftime lead.
Notes: Kenny Anderson, who played for New Orleans the latter part of last season, was making his fifth homecoming of sorts in the last eight games. During that stretch he played once in his hometown (New York) and faced former teams at New Jersey, Boston and Seattle. ... The Pacers came in holding opponents to 41.7 percent shooting from the field. The Hornets shot 36.7 percent.