Joel Embiid’s 38 points and Seth Curry’s 28 on Wednesday saw the Philadelphia 76ers withstand a 60-point performance from Washington’s Bradley Beal in a 141-136 win over the Wizards.
Tobias Harris and Shake Milton scored 19 points each, while Ben Simmons added 17 points and 12 assists, as the Sixers notched their fifth consecutive win and pushed their league-leading record to 7-1.
The Sixers led by as many as 21 points in the third quarter, but the Wizards hung around and knotted the score at 131-131 with four minutes left to play.
Photo: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY
From there, the Sixers scored eight consecutive points to pull away.
The defeat was more painful for the Wizards, as Russell Westbrook departed in the waning minutes with a hand injury, after contributing 20 points, eight rebounds and 12 assists.
The night’s 11 games played out hours after a mob of US President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington, forcing lawmakers to flee to safety and leaving one woman dead.
Around the league players and coaches addressed the violence, as well as a decision on Tuesday not to bring charges against the white police officer who shot and paralyzed African American Jacob Blake in Wisconsin in August last year.
“We play tonight’s game with a heavy heart after yesterday’s decision in Kenosha and knowing that protesters in our nation’s capital are treated differently by political leaders depending on what side of certain issues they are on,” players from the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat said in a joint statement before their game.
“The drastic difference between the way protesters this past spring and summer were treated, and the encouragement given to today’s protesters who acted illegally just shows how much more work we have to do,” they said.
The marquee matchup in Miami was the first meeting between the teams since the Heat eliminated the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals.
The rematch saw the Celtics emerge from a close game with a 107-105 victory.
Boston used a 10-0 scoring run to build a 10-point lead with 1 minute, 17 seconds remaining, only for the Heat to respond with a 10-0 run of their own before Celtics guard Payton Pritchard made the winning layup with two-tenths of a second remaining.
Jimmy Butler led the Heat with 26 points.
Jayson Tatum paced the Celtics with 27 and Jaylen Brown added 21.
In Orlando, Terrence Ross scored 20 points and Dwayne Bacon added 19 to lead the Magic to a 105-94 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
However, the victory was marred by a season-ending knee injury to point guard Markelle Fultz in the first quarter.
Fultz’s knee appeared to give out as he drove to the basket and he crashed to the court in obvious pain, with what the team later said was a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
Charlotte’s free-agent acquisition, Gordon Hayward, scored a career-high 44 points to propel the Hornets to a 102-94 victory over the Hawks in Atlanta.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
Japanese players are moving to English soccer in record numbers and more look set to follow with clubs attracted by their quality, strong work ethic and value for money. Kaoru Mitoma is the standout talent of five Japanese players in the English Premier League, with eight more in the Championship and two in League One. Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo, the captain of Japan, believes his compatriots are “being held in higher esteem” by English clubs compared with the past. “The staff at Liverpool ask me about lots of Japanese players, not necessarily with a view to a transfer, but just saying this or
Taiwan yesterday survived Bosnia and Herzegovina to win their Davis Cup World Group I tie at the Taipei Tennis Center. The tight series started on Saturday with world No. 123 Jason Tseng losing 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to Mirza Basic in the opening singles matchup. However, teammate Tony Wu kept the tie even, dominating world No. 86 Damir Dzumhur 6-2, 6-1. Yesterday, 24-year-old Ray Ho and partner 25-year-old Hsu Yu-hsiou kept up the momentum, making short work of Basic and Nerman Fatic, winning 6-3, 6-4. Tseng then suffered another defeat, losing 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 to Dzumhur in a brutal match that lasted more than two