LOS ANGELES: Joel Embiid poured in 25 issues and 19 rebounds to energy the Philadelphia 76ers to a 100-87 victory over the Oklahoma Town Thunder on Friday. Embiid, who additionally had 5 blocks and 4 assists in entrance of the group of 20,600 at Wells Fargo Middle, recorded his twenty second instantly sport with a minimum of 25 issues. Philadelphia performed their first sport since creating a blockbuster industry with the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday that noticed former league MVP James Harden sign up for his 3rd group within the closing two years.
Philadelphia despatched Australia’s Ben Simmons, Andre Drummond, Seth Curry and two first-round draft choices to the Nets for Harden and Paul Millsap. Because the gamers haven’t finished their physicals, the 76ers performed with out all 5, leaving them short-handed. Simmons, of Melbourne, has but to play in a sport this season. “It sucks to lose a few of my teammates. Seth did this sort of nice task for us.
“However James Harden is without doubt one of the highest gamers within the league. It’s lovely thrilling. You upload somebody like that and your possibilities to win the championship are even larger. I’m excited to get on with it,” stated Embiid. Tyrese Maxey added 24 issues and Tobias Harris contributed 17 issues and 11 rebounds within the win. Matisse Thybulle added 10 issues. Derrick Favors led the Thunder with 16 issues whilst Luguentz Dort and Aleksej Pokusevski added 15 every.
Darius Bazley had 14 issues and 15 rebounds as Oklahoma Town misplaced their fourth instantly. Embiid scored 11 issues within the 3rd quarter because the 76ers led 77-61 going into the fourth. After a 9-2 run, the Thunder were given inside of 87-75 midway throughout the fourth. Theo Maledon hit a three-pointer with 2:41 final and the Thunder trailed 88-82. However Harris answered with a 3 pointer of his personal and Maxey made a layup to increase the result in 11 issues.
Head trainer Mark Daigneault stated he was once happy the Thunder didn’t make a large number of offers on the industry cut-off date. “We like our guys. We actually like our group,” he stated. “We love the route we’re headed. We’re clearly early within the procedure. We’ve a large number of self assurance in now not handiest the fellows we’ve got at the moment, however the place we’re going.”
In other places, Jayson Tatum scored 24 issues because the Boston Celtics withstood a triple double from Nikola Jokic with a 108-102 win over the Denver Nuggets. The Celtics trailed 88-86 with 8:26 left earlier than outscoring the Nuggets 22-14 to near the sport out. Marcus Good delivered 22 issues and Robert Williams completed with 15 issues and 16 rebounds because the host Celtics stretched their successful streak to seven video games. Former San Antonio guard Derrick White got here off the bench to attain 15 issues in his first sport since being got in a industry on Thursday.
Triple-double
Jokic paced Denver with 23 issues, 16 rebounds and 11 assists within the loss. Jokic has recorded a triple-double in 8 of his previous 14 video games. Aaron Gordon scored 17 issues, Facundo Campazzo had 14, Will Barton added 13, and Bones Hyland had 10 for the Nuggets, who’ve misplaced 4 in their closing six.
In Chicago, DeMar DeRozan completed with 35 issues, six rebounds and 6 assists to steer the Chicago Bulls to a 134-122 victory over the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves. Additionally, Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen every scored 22 issues because the Cleveland Cavaliers rallied from a 21 level deficit to overcome the Indiana Pacers 120-113. It marked the biggest comeback of the season for Cleveland, who stormed again from a 20-point deficit Sunday towards Indiana. — AFP