Jaylen Brown scored 29 points and Payton Pritchard finished with 24 as the Boston Celtics overcame a 22-point deficit to defeat the visiting Miami Heat 98-96 Friday night.

Miami had possession with a chance to tie or win the game, but Davion Mitchell missed a 3-point attempt from the corner with 2.7 seconds left. Miami knocked the ball out of bounds on the rebound attempt, allowing the Celtics to run out the clock.

Nikola Vucevic had 11 points and 12 rebounds in his first game with Boston after being acquired in a trade with Chicago earlier in the week. Derrick White added 21 points for the Celtics, including a 3-pointer that put Boston in front 98-96 with 1:31 to play.

The victory extended Boston’s winning streak to five games.

Andrew Wiggins led Miami with 26 points. The Heat received a 24-point performance from Norman Powell, who missed Miami’s last three games for personal reasons.

Miami’s Pelle Larsson left the game with 5:01 left in the second quarter with a right elbow contusion and did not return.

The Heat scored the game’s first nine points and led by as many as 19 points in the opening quarter. The Celtics were 6-of-24 from the field, including 1-of-10 from 3-point territory, in the quarter and trailed 29-15 after 12 minutes.

Miami had its largest lead of the game after a Powell basket made it 56-34 with 1:50 remaining in the second quarter, and the Heat held a 59-38 halftime lead. Boston missed 19 of its 20 3-point attempts in the first half.

Boston erased its 21-point halftime deficit by outscoring Miami 36-15 in the third, which left the teams tied at 74 entering the final quarter. The Celtics took their first lead when White broke a 72-72 tie by making two free throws with 9.1 seconds left in the third.

–Field Level Media

Kevin Porter Jr. scored 23 points and dished eight assists to lead the Milwaukee Bucks to a 105-99 victory over the visiting Indiana Pacers on Friday night.

Milwaukee has won three games in a row for the first time all season. Ryan Rollins added 22 points while Bobby Portis scored 21 and Jericho Sims grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds.

Indiana fell for the third game in a row and fourth time in its last six games. Andrew Nembhard led the way with 22 with all but four coming in the fourth quarter. Pascal Siakam added 19.

Milwaukee got off to a slow start, turning it over five times in the first quarter and shooting just 9-of-22. Relief would come from beyond the arc.

Milwaukee shot 6-for-10 from deep in the second quarter alone and 50% from the floor in the first half. Those numbers helped them take a 54-47 lead into halftime.

The shooting momentum did not carry over into the second half for Milwaukee. AJ Green knocked down two 3-pointers to start the quarter and the team went 0-for-13 after. Despite that, the Bucks still outscored Indiana 29-18 in the frame and took a commanding 83-65 edge going into the fourth.

Things got interesting late in the fourth. As Milwaukee continued to struggle from the floor, Indiana rattled off a 15-0 run, capped by seven straight points from Nembhard.

Milwaukee went four and a half minutes without any points and Indiana got the deficit down to just 91-87 with four to play.

Despite Nembhard’s heroics, the Bucks bounced back for the victory, with Porter and Portis combining for 11 points in the final four minutes.

This was Milwaukee’s fourth consecutive regular-season victory over Indiana, including three this season. The Bucks had not won four in a row over their division rival since they won 10 in a row from 2020-23.

–Field Level Media

Zuby Ejiofor totaled 21 points, 10 rebounds, and seven assists as No. 22 St. John’s extended its winning streak to nine games in an 81-72 victory over No. 3 UConn in front of an electric sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden Friday night in New York.

The win marked St. John’s first victory over a top-3 team at MSG since defeating No. 3 Duke on Jan. 30, 2011, and it’s the first time St. John’s has won three consecutive games against UConn since the 1999-2000 season.

Ejiofor posted his fifth double-double and shot 6 of 10 from the field and often exploited his matchup with UConn’s Tarris Reed Jr, helping the Red Storm (17-5, 11-1 Big East) move within a half-game of the first-place Huskies (22-2, 12-1).

Tied at 45 in the second half, the senior center scored seven points in a 15-4 surge and staked the Red Storm to a 60-49 lead with 10:24 remaining.

After that point, St John’s fended off UConn’s comeback attempt that saw the Huskies cut the lead to 66-65 on a layup by Silas Demary Jr. with 4:46 left and 69-67 on a hoop by Alex Karaban with 3:39 left.

Following Karaban’s basket, Dylan Darling hit a 3 over Solo Ball and Ejiofor went around Reed for another hoop to put St. John’s up 74-67 with 2:27 left. The Red Storm finished off their third straight win over UConn by hitting five free throws in the final 57 seconds.

Dillon Mitchell added 15 as the Red Storm outscored the Huskies 42-33 in the final 20 minutes. Bryce Hopkins contributed 14 as the Red Storm shot 50% and gave coach Rick Pitino his 903rd career win to tie Roy Williams for third most all-time.

Demary led the Huskies with 18 points and Karaban added 17 as the duo combined to shoot 14-for-21 from the floor. Reed contributed 12 and Braylon Mullins chipped in 11 as the Huskies lost despite shooting 54.7% and saw their 18-game winning streak come to an end.

The Huskies held a 16-10 lead on a layup by Reed with 13:50 left in the first half before St. John’s scored nine straight for a 19-16 edge on a dunk by Oziyah Sellers a little over two minutes later. The Red Storm pushed their lead to 23-17 on two free throws by Ejiofor with 10:10 left and UConn answered back, taking a 26-25 lead on a Mullins’ 3 with 7:26 remaining.

After St. John’s took a pair of four-point leads, the Huskies forged a 39-39 deadlock by halftime on a drive by Demary with 15 seconds left.

–Field Level Media