AP
Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James picks himself up off the floor after being knocked down during the third quarter of Cleveland's 89-73 loss to the Boston Celtics in Game Two of their NBA Eastern Conference semi-finals in Boston on Thursday night.
BOSTON (AP):
PAUL PIERCE scored 19 points, Kevin Garnett added 13 with 12 rebounds, and Ray Allen broke out of a seven-quarter scoring drought with 16 points to help Boston beat Cleveland 89-73 on Thursday night.
The Celtics took a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semi-finals. Game Three is tonight in Cleveland.
One game after going 2-for-18 from the field and missing his last six shots, including a layup to tie the game with 8.5 seconds left, LeBron James missed his first three tries and finished with 21 points on 6-for-24 shooting.
The Cavaliers shot 35.6 per cent for the game, hitting just 11.8 per cent in the second quarter as Boston turned an eight-point deficit into a nine-point lead.
Outscored
From early in the second quarter to early in the third, a span of 13:41, Boston outscored Cleveland 36-10.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 19 points for the Cavaliers.
At San Antonio, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili both scored 31 points to lead San Antonio past New Orleans 110-99 in Game Three of the Western Conference semi-finals.
With the win, the Spurs avoided falling into an ominous 0-3 hole from which no NBA team has ever returned.
Chris Paul led the Hornets, who still hold a 2-1 series lead, with 35 points and nine assists. David West had 23 points and 12 rebounds for New Orleans, which was dominant in the first two games of the series.
Game Four is tomorrow night in San Antonio.
With the Spurs' win, the home teams are 10-0 in the four conference semi-final series.
11-0 burst
New Orleans got within 90-88 in the fourth quarter when San Antonio went on an 11-0 burst featuring Ginobili, Parker and Tim Duncan to take a 101-88 lead with 5:57 to play and the Hornets got no closer than 10 points in the latter half of the quarter.
Duncan had 16 points and 13 rebounds.
