Whiteside comes up big for Heat in 83-75 win over Celtics

BOSTON: Hassan Whiteside was hardly shocked when Miami coach Erik Spoelstra designed a play for him late in the third quarter of a tight game.

He was surprised when Spoelstra kept doing it, though.

Whiteside scored half of his 20 points during a dominant stretch spanning the third and fourth quarters and Miami Heat held off the Boston Celtics 83-73 on Sunday to snap a two-game slide.

Whiteside also had nine rebounds and blocked three shots, while Chris Bosh added 18 points and Tyler Johnson had 13, helping overcome the absences of Dwyane Wade and Luol Deng.

Wade missed his second game in a row with a strained right hamstring, while Deng sat out his third straight with a strained calf. Wade, who injured himself in Tuesday's loss to Milwaukee, is averaging 21.4 points and 5.4 assists per game.

Whiteside is more than making up for their absence, though, and Spoelstra isn't his only supporter.

The 25-year-old has most of Miami in a frenzy following a wild week that included a triple-double and franchise-record 12 blocks last Sunday, and 24 rebounds on Friday.

It's quite the story for the former castoff who signed with the Heat in November after playing in both Lebanon and China last year.

Avery Bradley and Tyler Zeller led the Celtics with 17 points apiece, and Brandon Bass had 15. It was Boston's third straight loss and fourth in its last five.

Both teams were coming off their worst shooting performances of the season. Miami was held to a season-low 33.0 percent in a loss to Dallas, while Boston shot 35.6 percent in a setback to Houston.

Neither fared much better Sunday, with Boston shooting 37 percent and Miami 41.6, but Whiteside's 10-for-17 performance fueled the Heat's third win in their last seven games.

The suddenly surging 7-foot sensation was relatively quiet for the first two-and-a-half quarters before he began resembling the center who came in averaging 15.3 points and 17.7 rebounds over his previous three games, including a triple-double line of 14 points, 13 rebounds and a franchise-record 12 blocks last Sunday.

After Boston erased a 12-point halftime deficit, tying it at 55 with less than three minutes to play in the third, Whiteside had his way with the young Celtics.

He scored Miami's final four points of the third and opened the fourth by scoring six straight points, including a pair of long jumpers that restored the Heat's eight-point cushion.

Anthony scores 31 points as Knicks rout Lakers 92-80

NEW YORK: Carmelo Anthony hears those voices saying he's getting old, that he can't jump like he once did.

Hard not to, since some of them are coming from right in his locker room.

Anthony answered in his own way Sunday, scoring 18 of his 31 points in the third quarter as the New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers 92-80.

He stared back toward his own bench in the second quarter after rising high to slam down a lob pass from Jason Smith, revealing that his teammates were teasing the 30-year-old forward recently after seeing him dunk.

With Kobe Bryant out for the season and both teams among the worst in the NBA, it was anything but a Super Sunday in New York, where the national TV audience that was originally scheduled to see it missed the Lakers shooting 35.5 percent from the field.

Anthony stood out above the ugliness, turning mostly to his jumper in the third quarter to help New York pull away. He shot 13 of 25 and grabbed eight rebounds.

Langston Galloway added 13 points for the Knicks, who have won five of seven and did it easily, building their first 20-point lead since they were up 21 in a victory over Philadelphia on Nov. 22.

Boozer had 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Lakers, who lost for the 10th time in 11 games. Jordan Clarkson also scored 19 points.

The Lakers had snapped their nine-game losing streak with a double-overtime victory over Chicago on Thursday but they remain lost on the road, where they fell for the seventh straight time.

The Knicks are 10-38, slightly worse than the Lakers' 13-35 mark. Missing half its star power with Bryant sidelined after shoulder surgery, the game was yanked from ESPN - the Knicks' fourth consecutive game that was dropped from the NBA's national TV schedule.

It was Derek Fisher's first time coaching against the team he helped win five championships, and now Phil Jackson, the coach of those teams, will have to figure out how to build the Knicks into contenders.

Fisher said that doesn't require landing another star like the Lakers did when they got Shaquille O'Neal or Pau Gasol, but acknowledged they may not be able to build gradually as teams such as Oklahoma City and Portland have.

The Knicks led 32-19 after one and pulled away in the third, when Anthony scored 12 straight Knicks points.

Results:

Miami Heat- 83 beat Boston Celtics- 75, New York Knicks- 94 beat Los Angeles Lakers- 80