BOSTON — The Celtics ran out of comebacks Tuesday night.
After rallying twice from down double digits in the game, and taking a three-point lead with two minutes to go in overtime, the Celtics allowed the final six points of the night to the New Orleans Pelicans in a 116-113 loss at TD Garden.
The defeat ends Boston’s seven-game winning streak.
An Al Horford 3-pointer and Kyrie Irving basket put the Celtics ahead, 109-108, with 3:55 left in overtime. Anthony Davis gave the Pelicans the lead when Jaylen Brown answered with a putback and Marcus Smart scored for a 113-110 Celtics lead with 2:05 to play.
DeMarcus Cousins and Jrue Holiday then came right back and it was the Pelicans up, 114-113, on the 17th lead change of the night with 1:22 to play.
Brown got bottled up on a drive out a timeout and Holiday made it a three-point game with 54 seconds to play. After a Marcus Morris 3-pointer rimmed out, Morris rebounded a miss with 11 seconds left. Brad Stevens elected not to call timeout, and Irving missed a potential tying 3-pointer with 2.5 seconds on the clock.
The Celtics nearly came up with the steal on the inbounds once, but Rajon Rondo got it in deep in the backcourt to Holiday. New Orleans was then forced to inbound the ball again after a foul with 1.6 seconds to play, but the clock ran out in the fight for the loose ball.
Locked in a 95-95 game with 5:26 left in the fourth after rallying back from a double-digit deficit in both the third and fourth quarters, Irving drilled a second-chance 3-pointer for the lead with 5:04 to play. Holiday got one back from the line when Daniel Theis drilled a kick-out 3-pointer from Irving for a 101-96 lead with 3:46 left.
The teams traded a pair of empty possessions as the clock ticked under two minutes to play when Ian Clark made it a three-point game off an Irving turnover with 1:50 left. The Celtics missed another chance to extend the lead with 1:35 on the clock, and Holiday tied it with a 3-pointer with 1:25 remaining.
Irving then misfired from deep, but came up with the steal in the backcourt and got the line for one of two free throws and a 102-101 lead with 1:00 on the clock. Davis got to the line out of a timeout and put the Pelicans back up one with 54.3 seconds remaining and Irving was off the mark on a drive.
Smart tied up Clark for a jump ball on the rebound, but the Pelicans won the jump with 13 seconds separating the game and shot clocks. Davis drew a foul on Jayson Tatum and made it a two-point game with 20.2 seconds left at the line into a timeout.
Down two with 20.2 seconds to play, the Celtics went to Irving out of a timeout, and he drove for the 104-104 tie with 11.8 on the clock.
A kicked ball gave the ball to the Pelicans on an inbounds play with 1.5 seconds on the clock, and Cousins was off the mark on a long 3-pointer at the buzzer to force overtime.
Irving scored 24 of his 27 points in the second half and overtime. Brown and Smart each scored 16 points, and Horford had 14 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists for the Celtics.
Davis scored 45 points with 16 rebounds, and Cousins had 19 points and 15 rebounds for the Pelicans.
After missing all five of his shots in the first half, Irving hit his first five shots in the third quarter as the rallied from down 12 for a 67-67 tie with 6:56 left in the quarter. Boston took a lead on a Tatum 3-pointer, and went up as many as three on a Brown drive, before the Pelicans shot back with six in a row for a 78-75 game with 3:21 left in the third.
The Pelicans hit the fourth up seven, and the Celtics were back down 10 after back-to-back turnovers. Smart then connected on a 3-pointer and then hit three free throws for a 90-86 game with 8:50 to play. Clark put the Pelicans up six when Smart found Theis and hit two free throws for a four-point game with 7:49 left.
A Brown 3-pointer made it a two-point game with 6:56 remaining. Then a Morris jumper and Brown slam followed a Cousins basket inside for a 95-95 game with 5:39 to play.