Celtics Put Cavs On Bubble

Around the NBA

The Boston Celtics, who hadn’t won in 24 days, celebrated as if they had just made the playoffs. They may have helped knock Cleveland out of them.

David Wesley hit a layup and three free throws in the last 34 seconds Friday night for a 103-101 overtime victory that dropped the Cavaliers a game behind Washington in the race for the last Eastern Conference playoff spot.

Each team has five games left, including Washington’s visit to Cleveland in the regular-season finale.

“There’s not much room to play with,” Cavaliers coach Mike Fratello said. “We had breakdowns defensively, and that’s what cost us the game.”

When Terrell Brandon’s 3-pointer at the buzzer just missed, the Celtics smiled and raised their arms in triumph as a 10-game losing streak ended.

“It’s a good feeling, especially at home,” Wesley said. “You get to walk off, your fans like you. They’ve been cheering for us even when we lose.”

If that’s the case, they should be hoarse by now since the Celtics have lost 64 of 78 games. Instead, Boston coach M.L. Carr was the one who was ailing.

Suffering from the flu, he went to the locker room during a timeout with Boston ahead 103-101 with 5.2 seconds to go. Assistant Dennis Johnson took over.

Boston, just 3-31 in its last 34 games, was led by Todd Day with 30 points and Wesley with 22.

Chris Webber made his first nine field goal attempts and scored 19 points as the Washington Bullets enhanced their playoff hopes by beating the New Jersey Nets 109-90.

Washington moved three games ahead of 10th-place Indiana, which lost to Atlanta.

Webber finished 9-of-10 from the field. He also had eight rebounds, five steals and two assists in 31 minutes.

Iverson matches Chamberlain

Allen Iverson scored 44 points, reaching 40 for the third straight game to tie Wilt Chamberlain’s NBA rookie record, but the Milwaukee Bucks got 40 points from Glenn Robinson in a 126-118 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers.

Ray Allen added 27 for the Bucks, who snapped a four-game losing streak. The Sixers lost their sixth straight despite the dynamic effort of Iverson, a top candidate for rookie of the year. He hit 16 of 28 shots and added nine assists.

Iverson scored a career-high 44 against Chicago on Monday and 40 against Atlanta on Wednesday. Against Milwaukee he had 17 points at the half, 10 more in the third period and 17 in the final quarter.

Chamberlain is the only other player to score at least 40 in three straight games during his rookie year. He did it three separate times in the 1959-60 season.

The Utah Jazz tied a franchise record with their 60th victory and matched their best winning streak of the season with their 15th straight victory, a 104-83 rout of the Houston Rockets.

Karl Malone had 28 points and 13 rebounds and Bryon Russell added 19 points for the Jazz.

Hakeem Olajuwon had 19 points for Houston, which converted just 30 percent of its field goal attempts. Charles Barkley was 3 of 11 for 10 points before being ejected for his second technical foul, from the bench, with 1:50 to play. Clyde Drexler shot just 2 of 15 and was scoreless in the second half.

Malone leads Jordan

Utah Jazz forward Karl Malone is the front-runner for the NBA’s Most Valuable Player Award, a Salt Lake newspaper said.

The Salt Lake Tribune surveyed 30 of the 115 media members who will vote for the annual award and found Malone leading four-time winner Michael Jordan of Chicago 271-237.