OAKLAND, Calif. — After a lackluster start to the lockoutshortened season, the Boston Celtics are finally figuring out how to win on nights they are far from their best.
Kevin Garnett scored 12 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter, including a tiebreaking jumper with 5.1 seconds left that led the Celtics to a 105-103 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night.
“It was not a perfect game. Some nights we make it look difficult, some nights we make it look easy,” Garnett said. “I said in the second half the team that actually played defense was going to have a chance to win the game or at least open it up. I thought in the second half we had a better defensive presence. We started getting stops.”
Brandon Bass added a season high 22 points, Paul Pierce and Mickael Pietrus each chipped in 15 and Rajon Rondo dished out 14 assists for the Celtics, who have won eight out of 10 following a five-game losing streak.
This win came despite 18 turnovers and a 52.6 percent shooting night for the Warriors. But, the Celtics came up with just enough plays down the stretch for the win.
“It’s good for the team, it’s good for our confidence,” forward Paul Pierce said. “ It shows we can win when we don’t play well. We played defense when it mattered. That’s what was most important.”
Rookie Klay Thompson led the Warriors with a seasonhigh 26 points, David Lee added 22 and Nate Robinson had 20 points and 11 assists. But it wasn’t enough as Golden State had its three-game winning streak snapped.
Bass made two free throws and a dunk to put the Celtics up 103-97 with 1:58 to play, but the short- handed Warriors didn’t go down easily. Two free throws by Lee and a basket by Robinson after a turnover cut the deficit to two points.
Then, after Pierce missed a jumper with 38 seconds left, Robinson used a hesitation move to get down the lane for a tying layup with 30 seconds to play.
But, Garnett answered with a long jumper off a pass from Pierce in the pick-androll to help the Celtics improve to 2-1 on their eightgame road trip.
“Simple play. Kept it very simple,” Garnett said. “Paul had the one-on-one, they cut it off, he came to me and I hit it.”
Robinson missed a 3-point attempt in the closing seconds as the Warriors went for the win because they were short- handed a day after dealing Monta Ellis, Ekpe Udoh and Kwame Brown to Milwaukee for Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson.
Golden State shot 56 percent in the first half and got 46 points from the trio of Thompson ( 17), Dorell Wright ( 15) and Lee ( 14) to take a 60-55 lead at the half.
Notes — Lee needed six stitches above his right eye in the first half, but was able to finish the game. … Warriors center Andris Biedrins missed two free throws in the second quarter and is one for nine from the line this season.
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