The Boston Celtics badly needed a win, and they literally fought hard to get it.
The Celtics, losers of four of five and coming off a 28-point loss to Washington, needed double overtime before beating Miami 121-120 Monday night. The game was marred by a second-quarter fight between Boston's Pervis Ellison and Miami's Kurt Thomas that had police and security personnel separating players and keeping fans off the court.Alonzo Mourning had 36 points and 14 rebounds for Miami, but the Celtics got 27 points from Dino Radja and 20 from Dee Brown to win just their second in five home games.
Boston rallied to tie the game in the closing seconds of regulation and the first overtime before Brown's layup with 2:32 to play in the second overtime gave them the lead for good.
Kevin Willis had 17 points and 15 rebounds for the Heat, who had won five straight.
Boston's win capped a wild night at the new FleetCenter.
With 2:02 left in the second quarter, Ellison and Thomas traded shoves and punches following two free throws by Radja. Both were ejected from the game, with Ellison suffering a six-inch cut inside his mouth that was closed with two stitches, according to Celtics team doctor Arnold Scheller.
"I was going in for an offensive rebound and he got me in the mouth. It took me by surprise. I just went in for the rebound. My first reaction was my mouth was bleeding and I was going to do what had to be done," Ellison said.
Nuggets 85, Pistons 82
Bryant Stith had 22 points, including four free throws down the stretch, and Dikembe Mutombo added 15 points, nine rebounds and nine blocked shots as the Nuggets won without leading scorer Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, who is day-to-day with post-concussion syndrome.