The Philadelphia 76ers shook off the absence of Joel Embiid on Saturday to sweep the Brooklyn Nets out of the NBA playoffs as the Phoenix Suns closed in on a second-round berth and the Los Angeles Lakers made a statement against the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Sixers romped into the next round of the playoffs with a dominant 96-88 victory over the Nets that completed their 4-0 triumph in the best-of-seven series.
Philadelphia trailed by 11 points early in the third quarter, but transformed the contest with an 18-4 run to take the lead before closing out victory with a fourth-quarter rally.
Photo: AFP
The Sixers’ win was all the more impressive given the absence of Most Valuable Player (MVP) candidate Embiid, who sprained his knee in Thursday’s 102-97 Game 3 win.
Tobias Harris led the scoring for Philadelphia with 25 points and 12 rebounds, while De’Anthony Melton came off the bench to produce 15 points and lead the fourth-quarter surge.
Harris said the Sixers were determined to use Embiid’s absence as a motivator.
“He’s the MVP, and when we heard he wasn’t playing, I think it was an opportunity for everybody else to really step up and understand that we’ve got to get a win without the big fellow,” Harris told broadcaster TNT.
In the Western Conference, LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the rest of the Lakers let their play answer the trash-talking of Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks, exploding out of the gate on the way to a playoff record-tying 35-9 first-quarter lead.
They led by as many as 29 in the second quarter as they rolled to a 111-101 victory.
“It’s important for us to play well,” James said. “We wanted to play better than we did in Game 2, and I think we did that. But we still have room for improvement.”
Davis bounced back from a dismal showing in the Lakers’ Game 2 defeat to score 31 points and grab 17 rebounds.
He also had two steals and three blocked shots, while James added 25 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
Brooks, who had mocked NBA all-time scoring leader James as “old” after Game 2, saying he was happy to “poke bears,” was tossed early in the third quarter after hitting James in the groin with his arm — a blow that sent James to the court in pain.
“There was a lot of game to be played when that incident happened,” James said. “So [I] just tried to get up, protect my crown jewels and move on to the next play.”
In the first game of a Los Angeles double-header, Kevin Durant finished with 31 points, 11 rebounds and six assists to help the Phoenix Suns beat the Los Angeles Clippers 112-100 for a 3-1 series lead.
Devin Booker plundered 30 points and veteran Chris Paul added 19 in a late burst of scoring as Phoenix bagged their second straight win in Los Angeles.
The Suns need just one more win to book their place in the Western Conference semi-finals, with Game 5 set for Phoenix on Tuesday.
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