Boston streak ends

LOS ANGELES: The Boston Celtics’ 16-game winning streak came to an end with an upset defeat against the Miami Heat in the National Basketball Association (NBA) on Wednesday as Russell Westbrook won his duel with Kevin Durant in Oklahoma City’s rout of Golden State.
Goran Dragic and Dion Waiters were the stars for Miami as the Heat claimed a 104-98 win in front of their home fans to stun Boston.Dragic scored 27 points while Waiters added 26, including a crucial pair of late three-pointers, as the Heat held on the win.
“Those guys didn’t win 16 games for nothing,” Waiters said. “It was a battle.”Miami improved to 8-9 with the win while Boston fell to 16-3. It was the first loss for the Celtics since they succumbed in the opening two games of the season.
In-form Celtics star Kyrie Irving meanwhile had an off-night by his recent standards, finishing with a relatively modest 23 points.Irving missed all three of his three-point attempts and made only 11 of his 22 field goal attempts.“Teams are coming out and giving us their best shots,” Irving said. “They made shots and got into a bit of a rhythm. You can tell they were locked into this game.”