The Denver Nuggets on Thurday rallied to push LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers to the brink of elimination from the NBA playoffs as the Philadelphia 76ers, fueled by 50 points from Joel Embiid, clawed back a win against the Knicks.
Defending champions the Nuggets erased a 10-point first-quarter deficit to beat the Lakers 112-105 in Los Angeles.
Aaron Gordon scored 29 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, while two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Nikola Jokic added 24 points, another 15 boards and nine assists for the Nuggets, who took a 3-0 stranglehold on the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series.
Photo: Mike Watters-USA Today
No NBA team has rallied from an 0-3 deficit to win a best-of-seven playoff series.
“We’ve got to figure out how to get one [win] on Saturday to stay alive,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said.
The Nuggets have now won 11 straight games against the Lakers, including their sweep in last season’s Western Conference Finals.
Photo: Gary A. Vasquez-USA Today
“I don’t think it is necessarily about our opponent,” Gordon said. “I think it’s about what we do and who we have as our guys in our locker room. We just focus on being great each and every night, and let the result take care of itself.”
Down by four at halftime, the Nuggets pulled away relentlessly in the third quarter and were never really challenged in the fourth.
“It’s a make or miss league,” Ham said. “When you can’t get a bucket, they’re scoring, they’re on a run, it’s tough.”
Photo: AP
Anthony Davis scored 33 points and pulled down 15 rebounds, while James scored 26 points with six rebounds and nine assists, but D’Angelo Russell went scoreless, missing all seven of his attempts, and Davis had just three points in the final period.
Jamal Murray, who made the buzzer-beating game-winner in the Nuggets’ crushing 101-99 victory on Monday, added 22 points and nine assists, while Michael Porter Jr chipped in 20 points and 10 rebounds for Denver.
Both the 76ers and the Orlando Magic avoided falling 0-3 down, Philadelphia with a spectacular offensive display from reigning NBA MVP Embiid in a 125-114 victory over the Knicks.
The Magic routed the Cleveland Cavaliers 121-83 to cut their series deficit to 2-1.
After the 76ers dropped two games at Madison Square Garden, Embiid defiantly insisted they were the “better team” and would right the ship at home.
He made sure they did, connecting on 13 of 19 shots, including five of seven from three-point range.
He scored 18 points in the third quarter, when the Sixers erased a three-point halftime deficit and pushed their lead to 13 going into the fourth quarter.
After his big night, Embiid revealed he was playing with Bell’s palsy, a condition that causes muscle weakness in one side of the face.
“Yes, it’s pretty annoying,” Embiid said of the condition, which usually resolves in a matter of weeks or months. “My left side of my face, my mouth and my eye. It’s been tough, but I’m not a quitter.”
Embiid added eight rebounds, four assists and a blocked shot, and was assessed a flagrant foul for pulling Mitchell Robinson to the court by the ankle in the first quarter — moments after Embiid had been sent crashing by Knicks forward O.G. Anunoby.
Embiid said he was just trying to make sure Robinson did not fall on him, but Robinson left the arena after the game wearing a protective boot.
Jalen Brunson led the Knicks with 39 points and 13 assists. Josh Hart scored 20 points, but Game 2 hero Donte DiVincenzo had just five and the 76ers have a chance to level the series tomorrow.
In Orlando, Florida, Paolo Banchero scored 31 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead the Magic, who handed the Cavs their most lopsided playoff defeat ever.
“I just wanted to come out and be aggressive,” Banchero said. “Going down 3-0 is a lot different than being down 2-1. So [I] knew we had to get this game — and we’ve got to do it again on Saturday.”
Jarrett Allen led the Cavs with 15 points and Donovan Mitchell added 13, but Cleveland connected on just 39 percent of their shots from the field.
Taiwanese badminton player Lin Chun-yi had to settle for silver in the men’s singles at the Orleans Masters in France on Sunday after losing in the final to his French opponent. The 25-year-old Lin, ranked world No. 14, lost to Alex Lanier 13-21, 18-21 in a match that lasted 42 minutes at the Palais des Sports arena. It was the first time that the two players were facing each other in their professional careers. In the opener, Lin was slow to warm up, which gave the 20-year-old Lanier an opportunity to take an early lead with seven consecutive points. Despite
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
Taiwan’s Lin Chun-yi on Wednesday inflicted a first-round defeat on former badminton world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen at the All England Open. Lin came out of top after a back-and-forth first game before Axelsen dominated the second, but the Dane was not able to keep that form in the decider as Lin reeled off six points in a row on the way to a 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 victory. “If I don’t play my best, everyone can win against me,” said Axelsen, the world No. 4. “Today’s opponent played a fantastic game; it was disappointing, but that is how it is.” “I just tried
Two-time Indian Wells champion Iga Swiatek on Thursday avenged her shock Paris Olympics loss to Zheng Qinwen with a 6-3, 6-3 win over the Chinese eighth seed, setting up a semi-final against 17-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva in the California desert. In the men’s singles, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz put on a show with his acrobatic shotmaking under the lights to close out the day’s action, overcoming a 4-1 second-set deficit to defeat Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei crashed out of the women’s doubles. Swiatek, one of the gold medal favorites when she lost to eventual champion Zheng in the
RSS