Cavaliers squander Ricky Rubio’s brilliant performance against Celtics

The Cleveland Cavaliers squandered the excellent performance of Spanish point guard Ricky Rubio and lost to the Boston Celtics 98-92 on Monday night in the NBA.

Rubio stood out with 28 points, but the Celtics took full advantage of forward Jayson Tatum’s 23 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

Dominican forward Al Harford also stood out for the Boston team by totaling 17 goals and nine balls recovered in the rebounding fight.

Another who was decisive for Boston was Dennis Schroder, who scored six points in the final 76 seconds. Schroder and Marcus Smart each scored 14 cards and Boston (7-7) won for the third time in four games.

Schroder hit back-to-back baskets to extend Boston’s lead to 94-89, then hit two free throws to close the score.

For his part, 26 of Rubio’s 28 points were in the second half, while his teammate Cedi Osman had 26 points and five assists off the bench for the Cavaliers (9-6), who had won six of eight challenges against this defeat.

Cleveland rookie Evan Mobley missed his 11 field goal attempts and finished with one point, nine rebounds and five assists before heading to the locker room for undisclosed reasons early in the fourth quarter.

The Cavaliers had led by 11 in the first and second quarters before taking a 39-37 lead at the break.

Sacramento masacra a Pistons

In Detroit, with excellent performances from Buddy Hield and Tyrese Haliburton, with 22 points the first and 17 with 10 assists the second, the Sacramento Kings massacred the Pistons 129-107.

With the victory the ‘Kings’ ended a streak of four consecutive defeats. They took control with a 26-2 offense for a 33-12 lead early in the second quarter.

Richaun Holmes scored 19 points and eight rebounds to also stand out for the Kings, followed by teammate De’Aaron Fox with 19 points and nine serves for a touchdown for Sacramento, who had six players with at least 15 cards.

For Detroit, Cade Cunningham had 25 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, followed by Saddiq Bey with 28 points, but no one else reached double figures for the Pistons.

Sacramento then responded with a 14-2 offense and led 68-44 at halftime.

The Kings shot 56.3% from the paint at the half, including 9 of 16 on 3s, while the Pistons shot just 31.4% and missed 21 of 27 3-point attempts.