Victor Oladipo on Tuesday led the depleted Miami Heat to a series-clinching 97-94 victory over the Atlanta Hawks as Ja Morant produced a dazzling late scoring spree to give the Memphis Grizzlies a thrilling win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA playoffs.
Miami, missing injured stars Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry, produced a superb defensive performance to shut down Atlanta and advance to an Eastern Conference semi-final series against either the Philadelphia 76ers or the Toronto Raptors.
Oladipo, who only returned to action last month after an 11-month injury layoff, was handed his first start of the playoffs by Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. The 29-year-old two-time All-Star repaid that faith with a 23-point display alongside Bam Adebayo, who finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
Photo: AFP
The win marked a fairy-tale return to center stage for Oladipo, whose career has been decimated by injuries and surgeries over the past three years.
Oladipo was sidelined for nearly a year after undergoing surgery to repair a ruptured quadriceps tendon in May last year. He had undergone surgery to treat the same problem in January 2019.
“There’s nothing I can’t handle,” Oladipo said after Tuesday’s win. “There’s nothing I haven’t gone through. At the end of the day I feel like I can come back and get through anything.”
Photo: AFP
“So when they told me I needed to start tonight, I just stepped up to the plate and did everything I could to help my team win ... this is only the beginning,” he added.
Adebayo took pride with a defensive performance that restricted Hawks star Trae Young to just 11 points. De’Andre Hunter led the Atlanta scoring with 35 points.
“We knew it was going to be a fight to the end, we just had to finish it with our defense,” Adebayo said. “Defense wins championships.”
In the Western Conference playoffs Morant scored a gravity-defying last-gasp layup as the Grizzlies conjured an epic late fightback to stun the Timberwolves 111-109.
Morant’s wizardry with one second remaining sealed an enthralling battle that leaves Memphis 3-2 ahead in the best-of-seven series with Game 6 in Minnesota on Friday.
Minnesota had led by 13 points early in the fourth quarter after big performances from Karl Anthony-Towns (28 points) and Anthony Edwards (22 points), but Morant, who bagged 30 points, suddenly found his scoring touch to haul Memphis back into contention.
The 22-year-old rising star of the NBA erupted for 18 points in the fourth quarter as Memphis outscored Minnesota 37-24 in the final period.
The catalyst for Morant’s masterpiece appeared to be a jaw-dropping dunk over Wolves guard Malik Beasley at the end of the third quarter that brought the Memphis crowd to their feet.
Morant later said he was “not that excited” by the dunk, but added: “It definitely ignited the crowd and that gave us some energy.”
The Grizzlies’ come-from-behind win was too close for comfort for Morant though.
“Me personally, I’m tired of it, tired of playing from behind,” he said.
Morant, who also had 13 rebounds and nine assists, was backed with a 25-point display from Desmond Bane, while Brandon Clarke added 21 points with 15 rebounds.
In Tuesday’s other game, Western Conference top seeds the Phoenix Suns returned to their winning ways with an emphatic 112-97 win over the New Orleans Pelicans in Arizona to take a 3-2 series lead.
More than 180 years of horse racing came to an end in Singapore on Saturday, as the Singapore Turf Club hosted its final race day before its track is handed back to the Singaporean government to provide land for new homes. Under an overcast sky, the air-conditioned VIP boxes were full of enthusiasts, socialites and expats, while the grounds and betting halls below hosted mostly older-generation punters. The sun broke through for the last race, the last-ever Grand Singapore Gold Cup. The winner, South African jockey Muzi Yeni, echoed a feeling of loss shared by many on the day. “I’d
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has withdrawn from this week’s Wuhan Open, organizers said on Tuesday, amid a racism row over an online photograph. Tournament organizers said the Spaniard had pulled out of the WTA 1000 tournament, citing a gastrointestinal illness, hours before her first-round match against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. News outlets including Britain’s the Telegraph earlier reported that Badosa had posted a photo on Instagram in which she appeared to imitate a Chinese face by placing chopsticks on the corners of her eyes. The photo was taken last week in a restaurant in Beijing, where she reached the semi-finals of the
PREDICTION: Last week, when Yu’s father made a wrong turn to the former champions’ parking lot, he said that his son could park there after this year With back-to-back birdies on the 18th hole, Kevin Yu fulfilled his driving range-owning dad’s prediction that he would win the Sanderson Farms Championship and become Taiwan’s third golfer to claim a US PGA Tour title. The Taoyuan-born 26-year-old, who represented Taiwan in the Olympic golf at Paris, saw off Californian Beau Hossler in a playoff at the Country Club of Jackson, Mississippi, on Sunday. Having drained a 15-foot putt to claw his way into the playoff, Yu rolled in from five feet on the first extra hole, ensuring he joined Chen Tze-chung (LA Open in 1987) and Pan Cheng-tsung (RBC
LeBron James and eldest son Bronny James claimed a piece of NBA history on Sunday after making their long-awaited first appearance alongside each other for the Los Angeles Lakers. The duo appeared together at the start of the second quarter in the Lakers’ 118-114 preseason defeat to the Phoenix Suns in Palm Desert, east of Los Angeles. While LeBron James impressed with 19 points in just 16 minutes and 20 seconds on court before sitting out the second half, Bronny found the going harder with zero points in just over 13 minutes on court. The younger James attempted just one
RSS