The Celtics led 73-58 at the end of the run. Joe Johnson, who had 25 points, had three late 3-pointers as the Hawks rallied. Johnson's 3 with 11.8 seconds remaining cut the lead to 77-76. Allen, who had 19 points, made two free throws with 10.9 seconds remaining.
Jeff Teague launched an air ball on Atlanta's final possession.
Kevin Garnett had 16 points and Rajon Rondo had 10 points, 13 assists and six steals for Boston, which took charge with a 17-2 run, including 13 unanswered points, after a 56-56 tie in the final period.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jrue Holiday had 20 points and six assists as the first-place Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Charlotte Bobcats to snap a three-game losing streak and sweep the three-game season series between the teams.
Holiday, coming off a career-high 30 points in Saturday's night loss at Chicago, was 8-of-13 shooting from the field and made all four shots from the free-throw line.
Doug Collins said before the game the key to snapping the losing skid was to get a more balanced scoring attack from his players and he got just that.
Thaddeus Young also had 20 points and Louis Williams chipped in with 19 for the 76ers.
Gerald Henderson had 14 points for the Bobcats, who failed to win back-to-back games for the first time this season.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Tristan Thompson scored a career-high 27 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and gave Cleveland the lead with a tip-in with 1:11 to play, leading the Cavaliers over the New Jersey Nets.
Fellow rookie Kyrie Irving added 26 points, seven assists and five rebounds as the Cavaliers snapped a three-game losing streak and sent the Nets to their third straight loss.
Newcomer Gerald Wallace had 27 points and 12 rebounds to lead New Jersey. Deron Williams added 28 points, but threw the ball away with roughly 16 seconds to play when he passed up a 3-point attempt to make a pass underneath with New Jersey down 103-100.
Irving, who scored the Cavaliers' final six points, was fouled after the turnover and pushed the lead to five.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Carlos Boozer scored 24 points and had 13 rebounds, John Lucas scored 20 points off the bench and the Chicago Bulls beat the Orlando Magic.
Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau also became the fastest coach in NBA history to earn 100 career victories. The Bulls won for the fifth time in six games.
They also improved to 3-1 over the past four games playing without guard Derrick Rose, who continued to nurse a sore groin.
Dwight Howard had 18 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Magic, who had 19 turnovers.
The Magic have lost three of their last four since posting a three-game win streak. They've also gone six straight quarters without scoring at least 20 points.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Kevin Love banked in a 16-foot jumper with 4 minutes left, then added an insurance tip-in off a miss by J.J. Barea to help the Minnesota Timberwolves keep their dimming playoff hopes alive.
Love finished with 36 points and 17 rebounds for his 39th double-double of the season. Luke Ridnour added 11 points and 10 assists, while Anthony Tolliver scored 10 points off the bench, all in the fourth quarter for the Timberwolves.
Minnesota (23-24) snapped a three-game losing streak with the win and moved within 1 1/2 games of Houston for the eighth spot in the Western Conference.
David Lee had 25 points and nine rebounds for the Warriors, who remained winless since trading leading scorer Monta Ellis to the Milwaukee Bucks last week.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Trail Blazers' homecoming after a tumultuous seven-game road trip hardly represented a return to normalcy. While the team got Monday off, the Blazers introduced a pair of new players they acquired at the NBA trade deadline last week, a day that was marked by the dismissal of head coach Nate McMillan.
Only perfunctory attention was paid to center Hasheem Thabeet and point guard Jonny Flynn, while questions continued to swirl about the present and future of the franchise.
With 21 games left, the Blazers operate under an interim general manager, and now an interim head coach in Kaleb Canales, who started off in Portland as an unpaid video intern in 2004. But they've also got as many as four picks in the upcoming NBA draft, and they've created a considerable amount of cap space to use this summer on the free agent market.
Rebuilding indeed.
"I think it was the right decision, because I felt like, what we'd observed of our team was very disappointing. It was time to give something a new shot, inject some new blood with having Kaleb take over and making a couple of moves that looked at the long term," interim GM Chad Buchanan said. "I think in the short term, I wanted to see our guys compete again, and we weren't doing that on a consistent basis."
Thabeet and Flynn were acquired, along with a second-round draft pick, from Houston in exchange for veteran Marcus Camby last Thursday at the deadline. The Blazers also traded forward Gerald Wallace to the New Jersey Nets for center Mehmet Okur, forward Shawne Williams and a protected first-round pick. The two deals netted the Blazers cap space and added to a stockpile of picks for this June's NBA draft.
But those moves were nothing compared to McMillan's firing the same day. The former "Mr. Sonic" who had moved south to coach the Blazers for six-plus years was let go after Portland was soundly defeated by the Knicks 121-79 last Wednesday night.
"It all happened pretty fast. We were in the midst of all the madness going on that day," Flynn said. "I was just looking at it as a great opportunity. The Blazers were going through a tough stretch at that time, and sometimes you make tough decisions to get the best out of your players."
The fateful Thursday was capped by Portland's decision to waive oft-injured former No. 1 draft pick Greg Oden.
After McMillan was hired in the summer of 2005, the Blazers set about repairing the "Jail Blazers" reputation of the first half of the decade. In 2006, they brought in guard Brandon Roy and forward LaMarcus Aldridge. The next year, Portland took Oden with the No. 1 pick, hoping the trio under McMillan would take the Blazers to an NBA championship.
Oden's career in Portland and his repeated knee surgeries were well-documented. Then, shortly after the NBA lockout was resolved and training camps were set to open in December, three-time All-Star Brandon Roy abruptly retired because of problems with both knees that had plagued him for two seasons.
Aldridge, an All-Star himself for the first time this season, is the last player of the trio left.
Portland continues to operate under Buchanan, the team's director of college scouting who took over when Rich Cho was fired at the end of last season. If the team has made any progress in finding a permanent GM, there has been little evidence of it. The plan is to name both a permanent head coach and GM before the draft.
The team goes into the final 21 games of the season under Canales, a likable and enthusiastic 34-year-old who won his first game as a head coach when the Blazers defeated the Bulls 100-89 in Chicago on Friday night. The Blazers fell 111-95 to Oklahoma City on Sunday, finishing the road trip at 2-5.
Portland is 21-24 overall and sitting out of the playoff picture in the Western Conference. The Blazers host Milwaukee on Tuesday, opening a stretch where they play eight of their next ten games at home.
There has been rampant speculation that without a permanent general manager or coach, team owner Paul Allen is positioning the team for sale.
Last Thursday night after the dust settled with McMillan, Oden and the trades, Blazers President Larry Miller insisted that Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft who also owns the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, was not selling the team.
"If he wasn't committed to this team, we wouldn't be doing the things we are doing," Miller said. "He absolutely is still committed to this team, he's still the owner of this team, he's still as involved as he's ever been in this team."
If sixth-man Jamal Crawford decides to opt out of his contract in the offseason, it appears that the Blazers will have some $25 million in cap space to maneuver into free agency. They'll have up to four picks in the NBA draft, and it seems apparent that they'll re-sign forward Nicolas Batum before going hard at a big-name point guard.
As for the future, Buchanan freely acknowledges that the Blazers are in a rebuilding phase, but they haven't quite given up on the season. He maintains it is ultimately more preferable to make the playoffs, even if Portland loses in the first round, than to throw in the towel now.
"It's been a challenging year, I would say," Buchanan said. "There's highs and low to any NBA season. You can't ride the waves of the ups and downs. You've got to be steady and looking long term.
"The disappointing part for me was the consistent lack of competitive spirit, competitive fire, for such a long stretch, that really kind of defined our season to this point. We have 21 games to change that."
-- Anne M. Peterson
Warriors retire Chris Mullin's jersey
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Chris Mullin didn't think he'd see his No. 17 Golden State jersey hanging from the rafters at Oracle Arena, not after a bitter parting with the Warriors three years ago. But Mullin has found a way to overcome a lot during his life and Hall of Fame basketball career.
Mullin was honored as part of a halftime ceremony during the Warriors' 97-93 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night.
The former St. John's star who went on to become a five-time All-Star after entering the NBA as a first-round pick in 1985 was having too much fun remembering his playing days and joking with former teammates than to get caught up in a discussion about any lingering resentment he may have toward his former employers.
Wearing a dark-colored suit with a light blue and yellow tie, Mullin smiled as he recalled spending hours in the gym after practice with Mitch Richmond and Tim Hardaway, each player trying to one-up the other no matter what the drill was.
The trio formed the famed "Run-TMC" combination which was the centerpiece for the Warriors' run-and-gun style under coach Don Nelson in the late 1980s and early '90s.
Richmond and Hardaway joined Nelson and several other former Golden State players in Oakland to take part in the ceremony honoring Mullin seven months after he was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
"It was the most fun I had playing basketball in my whole life," Mullin said during a 20-minute pregame interview with reporters. "What Tim had, I didn't have. What Mitch could do, I couldn't do. Together, Nellie figured out how to mix and match that thing. I loved that style of play."
Video tributes, including ones from Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, played on the scoreboard throughout the evening. Johnson and Bird both played with Mullin on the USA's Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics.
During the game Mullin, sat courtside with his wife and four children, only a few seats away from current Warriors owner Joe Lacob. He received a standing ovation from the crowd, many of them holding Mullin bobbleheads, as he walked into a nearby tunnel shortly before the halftime ceremony began.
Highlights of Mullin's career with the Warriors played during the ceremony before the Hall of Famer received another standing ovation as he rose to speak at midcourt.
"This is where it all started for me as a pro," Mullin told the crowd. "I grew up right in front of you. You, the Warrior fans, were a huge part of my success. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I'm proud to call the Bay Area my home."
The ceremony was interrupted by the crowd booing when Lacob rose to spoke.
Mullin walked to Lacob and put his arm around the Warriors owner before addressing the crowd. When the booing continued, Rick Barry — whose jersey also hangs from the rafters in Oakland — took a microphone and admonished the crowd.
It was a minor blip on an otherwise special night for Mullin.
The Brooklyn native spent countless hours practicing and playing on the Warriors' home court during his 13-year career with the team. Mullin still holds franchise records for games played (807) and steals (1,360), and is fourth on the club's career scoring list.
While he was beloved as a player, Mullin's foray into Golden State's front office didn't have the same results. He was fired as the team's executive vice president of basketball operations following the 2008-09 season, nearly a year after the former star player seemingly lost his authority in a power struggle within the tumultuous Warriors.
Mullin, who grew up with and was a college teammate of current Golden State coach Mark Jackson, has only returned to Oracle Arena a handful of times since, and acknowledged being surprised when he was informed the Warriors intended to retire his jersey.
"I really didn't think about it, but now that it's here, it's two different parts of my life," Mullin said. "This is about my playing days and the things that happened throughout my playing career, and with that it's nothing but good memories. But I never believed this would happen. I never thought about it."
Mullin is the sixth Warriors player to have his jersey number retired, joining Barry, Wilt Chamberlain, Al Attles, Tom Meschery and Nate Thurmond. Except for Chamberlain, who was represented by his sister Barbara Lewis, all attended the ceremony for Mullin.
Celtics' O'Neal plans season-ending wrist surgery
ATLANTA (AP) — Boston Celtics forward-center Jermaine O'Neal will have surgery on his left wrist and miss the remainder of the season, adding more urgency to the team's search for inside help.
O'Neal, in his 16th NBA season, already has missed 13 games with the sprained wrist. Celtics spokesman Jeff Twiss said Monday no date has been set for the surgery. The 33-year-old O'Neal has averaged 5 points and 5.4 rebounds in 25 games, including 24 starts, this season.
Celtics coach Doc Rivers said before Monday night's game against the Hawks the team hopes to add "one or two bigs" this week to replace O'Neal, who has been out since Feb. 22.
"We already had counted this in, honestly," said Rivers of O'Neal's inability to return. "We've had the 'For Sale' sign out. We've just got to get somebody to buy.
"I feel good that we're going to find a couple of guys. ... We'd like one that has a skyhook and is 7 feet tall, but we're probably not going to find that."
The Celtics, seventh in the Eastern Conference, began Monday night's game in Atlanta only two games over .500. Kevin Garnett, Brandon Bass and Paul Pierce were Boston's three starting forwards against the Hawks.
Rookie Sasha Pavlovic, averaging only 1.9 points per game, was one of Rivers' first substitutes against the Hawks.
Rivers said the team can't be too selective in its search for help.
"Really, honestly, whoever comes, we're going to look at him and we're probably going to sign him," Rivers said. "It's pretty close to that."
O'Neal, from Columbia, S.C., was a first-round pick by Portland in 1996. He also has played with Indiana and Miami. He averaged more than 20 points per game in four straight seasons with Indiana (2002-06).
-- Charles Odum
Hawks' Pargo to miss 2 to 4 weeks after surgery
ATLANTA (AP) — Hawks guard Jannero Pargo is expected to miss two to four weeks following an appendectomy in Cleveland on Sunday night.
Pargo missed the Hawks' 103-87 win over the Cavaliers on Sunday with what was believed to be a stomach virus. He had the surgery at the Cleveland Clinic.
Hawks coach Larry Drew says Pargo, a backup who averages 5.2 points per game, may fly back to Atlanta on Tuesday. Drew says forwards Marvin Williams (hip) and Vladimir Radmanovich (back) will not play Monday night against Boston. Guard Willie Green (hamstring) may play.
Backup center Jason Collins played three minutes against Cleveland after missing 21 games with a sprained left elbow. Starting center Al Horford tore his left pectoral muscle in January and has not returned.
Kings waive F Hickson
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Sacramento Kings have waived forward J.J. Hickson.
Kings president of basketball operations Geoff Petrie announced the move Monday. Sacramento acquired Hickson last June from Cleveland for forward Omri Casspi and a conditional future first-round draft pick.
Hickson played 35 games for Sacramento. He averaged 4.7 points and 5.1 rebounds in 18.4 minutes per contest. He had been bothered recently by back spasms and played only 6 minutes in the past 10 games.
Hickson was a first-round pick by Cleveland out of North Carolina State in 2008.
Bobcats F Maggette out with back injury
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Bobcats forward Corey Maggette will sit out against the Philadelphia 76ers with a back injury.
Maggette, Charlotte's leading scorer this season at 15.8 points per game, injured his back diving for a ball during Saturday night's win over Toronto. Coach Paul Silas says he's optimistic Maggette will be back in action Friday night when the Bobcats host Maggette's former team, the Milwaukee Bucks.
Maggette, who is also battling an illness and was sent home early on Monday, has three days off to rest and recover. Reggie Williams, averaging 8.6 points per game, gets the start in place of Maggette.
Miller leaves Nuggets game with shoulder injury
DENVER (AP) — Denver Nuggets guard Andre Miller has left Monday's game against the Dallas Mavericks with a bruised right shoulder and will not return.
Miller was hurt when he was fouled by Brandan Wright with 10:51 left in the second quarter. Miller rotated his arm for several seconds before hitting 1 of 2 free throws. On Dallas' ensuing possession, he was clearly in pain and motioned to the bench to come out. He went to the locker room and did not come back out.
Miller, who turned 36 on Monday, has missed just four games in his 13-year career — and just three to injury. He is averaging 10.3 points and 6.6 assists for Denver this season.
Nuggets forward Gallinari breaks left thumb
DENVER (AP) — Denver Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari has left Thursday's game against Dallas with a broken left thumb. Gallinari was injured in the third quarter and X-rays revealed the fracture. He did not return to the game.
Gallinari missed 13 games with a severely sprained ankle suffered against Houston on Feb. 6. He returned to the lineup on March 5 and had started to regain his rhythm. Gallinari leads the Nuggets in scoring at 15.6 points a game and is averaging 4.6 rebounds.
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