15-0 closing surge lifts Spurs over Celtics
Dejounte Murray #5 of the San Antonio Spurs dribbles the ball during the second half of a game against the LA Clippers at Staples Center on November 16, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images/AFP
Dejounte Murray scored 29 points, eight of them in a decisive late-fourth quarter run, and pulled down 11 rebounds as the San Antonio Spurs outlasted the visiting Boston Celtics 96-88 on Friday to snap a six-game losing streak.
Down by seven with three minutes to play, the Spurs scored the game’s final 15 points.
29 PTS, 11 REB, 6 AST, 3 STL 🙌@DejounteMurray does it all and ties his career-best in scoring as the @spurs pick up the win! pic.twitter.com/JmJW0SNOlc
— NBA (@NBA) November 27, 2021
The Spurs led by 16 points after the first quarter and 15 at halftime, but Boston found its shooting range in the second half and came back to take a 76-74 edge midway through the fourth quarter.
The Celtics were up 88-81 after a bucket by Marcus Smart with 3:21 to play before San Antonio bounced back.
Derrick White and Keldon Johnson added 17 points each for the Spurs while Tre Jones hit for 12 and Lonnie Walker IV scored 10 points in the win. Johnson added 14 rebounds and Jakob Poeltl took 12 boards for San Antonio.
Jayson Tatum shook off his first-half shooting doldrums to post 24 points, 21 of those after halftime, and 12 rebounds. Jaylen Brown added 16 points and Smart had 13 for Boston, which has dropped two straight.
San Antonio led by as many as 24 points, at 40-16, after a running jumper by Murray at the 8:23 mark of the second quarter.
The Celtics began their climb back into the game, forging an 19-2 run capped by Aaron Nesmith’s bucket that cut the lead to 42-35 at the 3:20 mark. The Spurs answered, ending the period with a 10-2 surge and taking a 52-37 advantage into the break.
Murray had 12 points by halftime to pace all scorers, with White adding 11 and Poeltl grabbing 10 first-half rebounds for the Spurs.
Brown led the Celtics with just nine points in the half while Tatum had only three points on 1-of-9 shooting from the floor. Boston shot just 28 percent over the first 24 minutes.
Tatum scored nine points in the third quarter, including a 3-pointer with 35.8 seconds left, to help Boston claw back to within 70-63 heading to the final period.
