Tyrese Maxey on Tuesday scored 43 points to lead the short-handed Philadelphia 76ers to a 118-104 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers, as the surging Houston Rockets pulled off a tense 100-96 win over Atlanta.
With Joel Embiid missing his 12th straight game and Paul George sidelined with a finger injury, Maxey stepped up as the Sixers won their third straight.
The defeat halted the Lakers’ four-game winning streak, which featured a victory over reigning champions Boston. Worse, star Anthony Davis exited in the first quarter with an abdominal strain.
Photo: AFP
The Lakers were up 20-17 when Davis — fresh off a 42-point, 23-rebound performance in Charlotte on Monday — departed and they struggled defensively in his absence.
The 76ers outscored them 48-32 in the second quarter and led 73-57 at halftime.
LeBron James scored 31 points with eight rebounds and nine assists, but said 22 turnovers were too many.
“When your best player goes out it’s always challenging,” James said. “We’ve just got to be better. We had too many turnovers tonight that resulted in too many buckets for them. You can’t make mistake after mistake after mistake.”
James, the league’s all-time leading scorer, had one steal to move into sixth place on the all-time steals list with 2,311.
In Atlanta, Georgia, Jalen Green scored 25 points for the Rockets, who fended off a late Hawks surge to post a fourth straight win.
Coming off three big victories — two straight over Eastern Conference leaders Cleveland and a 114-112 victory on Monday over Boston — the Rockets delivered another gritty performance.
Green’s steal and layup pushed Houston’s lead to 96-80 with 5 minutes, 16 seconds to play, but Atlanta sliced the deficit to 98-96 with less than a minute remaining.
DeAndre Hunter had a chance to put the Hawks in front, but missed a three-pointer and Alperen Sengun sealed the victory with a dunk.
Sengun finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Jae’Sean Tate added 16 points off the bench for Houston.
Trae Young scored 21 for Atlanta, who dropped their sixth straight.
In San Francisco, the Golden State Warriors shook off the absence of superstar Stephen Curry to beat the Utah Jazz 114-103.
Curry, who sat out with a flare-up of knee trouble, was just one notable Warriors absentee, with Draymond Green sidelined again with a calf strain and Jonathan Kuminga nursing a sprained ankle.
Dennis Schroder drilled five three-pointers on the way to 23 points to lead the Warriors.
Brandin Podziemski added 20 off the bench and Andrew Wiggins chipped in with 19 as Golden State saw their 15-point lead cut to one midway through the fourth quarter before pulling away again for the win.
Collin Sexton scored 30 points to lead six Jazz players to score in double figures, but Utah dropped their seventh straight.
In Portland, Oregon, Deni Avdija matched his season-high with 30 points and Anfernee Simons added 25 for the Trail Blazers in a 125-112 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 39 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, while Damian Lillard — who played 11 seasons in Portland — added 20 for the Bucks.
After surrendering an early 12-point lead, Milwaukee never led in the second half.
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and partner Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia yesterday advanced to the women’s doubles final at the Australian Open after defeating New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-3 in their semi-final. Hsieh has won nine Grand Slam doubles titles and has a shot at a 10th tomorrow, when the Latvian-Taiwanese duo are to play Taylor Townsend of the US and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in the championship match at the A$96.5 million (US$61 million) outdoor hard court tournament at Melbourne Park. Townsend and Siniakova eliminated Russian pair Diana Shnaider and Mirra Andreeva 6-7
Manchester City have reached do-or-die territory in the UEFA Champions League earlier than expected ahead of what Pep Guardiola has described as a “final” against Club Brugge today. City have disproved the suggestion a new format to Europe’s top club competition would remove any jeopardy for the top clubs as Guardiola stares down the barrel of failing to make the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in his career. The English champions have endured a torrid season both in their English Premier League title defense and on the continent. A run of one win in 13 games, which included Champions League
Things are somewhat out of control at the Australian Open this year, and that has only a little to do with the results on the courts. Yes, there were some upsets, including Madison Keys eliminating No. 2 Iga Swiatek in the women’s singles semi-finals on Thursday. It also was the first time since 1990 that three teenagers beat top-10 men’s seeds at a Grand Slam tennis tournament. The loser of one of those matches, Daniil Medvedev, got fined US$76,000 for behaving badly. Last year’s women’s singles runner-up exited in the first round. However, the real fuss is happening elsewhere. The rowdy fans, for one
The CTBC Brothers from Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) on Friday announced they reached an agreement with the team’s shortstop Chiang Kun-yu (江坤宇) to extend his contract by 10 years in a deal that could worth up to NT $147.88 million (US$4.5 million). Including a NT$10 million incentive bonus, the 24-year- old’s new contract stipulates that his monthly salary will be NT$660,000 starting this year, increasing to NT$1.2 million from the fifth year of the deal. Chiang’s new agreement also comes with a caveat in the form of a “player option” where he would have the choice to become a free
RSS