The Cleveland Cavaliers held off Golden State 118-110 on Saturday in a fiery NBA clash that saw Warriors forward Draymond Green ejected in the third quarter after a skirmish with Donovan Mitchell.
Six Cavs players scored in double figures as Cleveland beat the Warriors for the second time in a week.
They had seized control with a 38-point second quarter, and were up by 10 after Caris LeVert’s layup over Klay Thompson midway through the third.
Green knocked Mitchell out of bounds on that play and soon after Mitchell ran straight into Green, prompting Green to drop the ball and step toward him.
The two were held back from each other, but Green was handed his second technical foul of the game after video showed him elbowing Mitchell “a couple of plays before,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.
Kerr said he didn’t know such a retroactive technical could be called.
“It was bizarre,” he said.
Green’s departure briefly galvanized the Warriors, who took a one-point lead on Chris Paul’s basket with 10 seconds left in the third. However, Cleveland pulled away again in the fourth.
Mitchell finished with 21 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two steals.
All five Cleveland starters scored in double figures, and LeVert topped them with 22 points off the bench as the Cavs followed up their home win over the Warriors last Sunday.
“We competed our tails off and we played the game selflessly,” Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff said.
Stephen Curry Led the Warriors with 30 points, 17 of them in the first half.
In the third quarter Curry became the 36th NBA player to reach 22,000 career points. But Kerr said that overall Golden State’s defense was “sluggish.”
Thompson scored 14 points and Andrew Wiggins added 13, but Cleveland dominated in the paint and scored 32 points off the Warriors 20 turnovers.
In Boston, Jaylen Brown scored 29 points and Jayson Tatum added 27 as the Celtics romped to a 117-94 victory over the Toronto Raptors.
Kristaps Porzingis added 21 points and seven rebounds for the Celtics, who made it look easy again, one night after a 14-point win over Brooklyn.
Brown scored 14 points in the third quarter, when Boston pushed their advantage to as many as 24 points. They were up by 17 going into the final period.
“We got whatever we wanted, inside and out,” Porzingis said.
Pascal Siakam scored 17 points to lead the Raptors, but Toronto connected on just 38.5 percent of their shots from the field, including 10 of 37 from three-point range.
– Magic surprise Bucks –
The Orlando Magic, led by Paolo Banchero’s double-double of 26 points and 12 rebounds, handed Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks a second straight defeat, 112-97.
The Magic pulled down 15 offensive rebounds as the Bucks struggled to contain an Orlando team that came in averaging 109.9 points per game but scored 65 in the first half.
“We just have to do a better job defensively, collectively — helping each other, plugging those holes and limiting them to one shot,” Bucks coach Adrian Griffin said. “We just have to be a little stronger on both ends of the basket.”
Franz Wagner added 24 points for Orlando, Jalen Suggs scored 20 and Mo Wagner chipped in 19 off the bench.
Two days after Antetokounmpo scored 54 points in a loss to the Indiana Pacers, the Bucks squandered another strong performance from their two-time NBA Most Valuable Player, who led all scorers with 35 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.
It wasn’t enough to stop the Magic ending their 14-game losing streak against Milwaukee, who trailed by 16 at halftime and couldn’t cut the deficit to less than 11 in the second half.