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NBA roundup: Anunoby beats buzzer as Raptors defeat Celtics
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Facing the absolute brink, the Toronto Raptors suddenly have life.
OG Anunoby caught a crosscourt inbounds pass from Kyle Lowry and hit a 3-pointer with no time remaining, and the Raptors beat the Boston Celtics 104-103 in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series Thursday night.
Toronto cut Boston’s series lead to 2-1. The Celtics took a two-point lead when Kemba Walker found Daniel Theis for a dunk with a half-second left.
No team in NBA history has rallied from a 3-0 series deficit. The Raptors won’t have to try it now; Lowry elected to audible and throw the long pass – high over 7-foot-5 Tacko Fall – to Anunoby.
Lowry played virtually the whole way, finishing with 31 points, eight assists and six rebounds. Fred VanVleet scored 25 points, Pascal Siakam had 16 and Anunoby 12.
Walker scored 29 points for Boston, which lost for the first time in seven playoff games. Jaylen Brown had 19 points and 12 rebounds and Jayson Tatum finished with 15 points, nine rebounds and six assists for the Celtics.
Game 4 is Saturday.
Morant wins Rookie of Year: Memphis’ Ja Morant was announced Thursday as the runaway winner of the rookie of the year award, the first Grizzlies player to win the award since Pau Gasol in 2001-02. Morant averaged 17.8 points and 7.3 assists, picking up three Western Conference rookie of the month awards along the way.
Miami’s Kendrick Nunn was second and New Orleans’ Zion Williamson was third. Nunn, who was undrafted, averaged 15.3 points in 67 regular-season games – all starts – for the Heat. Williamson averaged 22.5 points and 6.3 rebounds, but the No. 1 pick in the 2019 draft missed much of his rookie season while dealing with injury.
Morant got 99 of the 100 first-place votes, with Williamson getting the other. Morant’s Grizzlies teammate Brandon Clarke was fourth in the voting.
Nets hire Nash as coach: Steve Nash was one of the NBA’s most entertaining point guards, the engineer of a high-scoring team that helped usher in a new era of basketball.
Now the Brooklyn Nets want to see what he can do as a coach.
The Nets hired Nash Thursday, putting the Hall of Famer in charge of the team that hopes to have Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving together next season.
Nash, two-time MVP as the playmaker of the Phoenix Suns teams under Mike D’Antoni that piled up points and 3-pointers long before they became the norm in the NBA, had been a player development consultant with Golden State, where he worked with Durant.