Smart’s strong second half carries Celtics

BOSTON — Marcus Smart scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half, Kyrie Irving had 16 points, nine rebounds and eight assists and the Boston Celtics pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 91-84 on Friday night.

Terry Rozier had 14 points and nine rebounds, Aron Baynes had 11 points and 10 rebounds and Jaylen Brown also scored 11 for Boston, which has won five straight and six of seven.

Karl-Anthony Towns led the Timberwolves with 25 points and a career-high 23 rebounds. Jimmy Butler scored 14, Jamal Crawford had 13 points and Andrew Wiggins scored 10 for Minnesota, which lost back-toback games for the first time since November.

Towns pulled down more than half of the Timberwolves’ 43 rebounds, and no other Minnesota player had more than four as Boston dominated the glass 56-43.

Boston had a rough night shooting, going 38 for 94 and making just 6 of 36 3-pointers. Minnesota shot 36.8 percent from the field.

HEAT 107, KNICKS 103, OT: Wayne Ellington scored 24 points, Goran Dragic added 19 and Miami survived a back-and-forth flurry in the final minutes to beat New York in overtime.

Josh Richardson scored 18 and Tyler Johnson added 16 for Miami, which went 19 for 20 from the foul line — 13 for 13 after halftime. The Heat set a franchise record by taking 42 3-pointers, and Ellington had another team all-time mark by attempting 16.

Doug McDermott's 3pointer with 1.1 seconds left in regulation sent the game to overtime, and the Knicks led twice in the extra session. Miami finished the game on a 7-2 spurt, started by a 3 from Ellington with 2:22 remaining.

Courtney Lee scored 24 for New York, which got 20 from Michael Beasley and 15 from Kristaps Porzingis.

Michael Dwyer / Associated Press The Timberwolves’ Jamal Crawford defends against the Celtics’ Marcus Smart during the second quarter on Friday night in Boston.