LOS ANGELES – The Philadelphia 76ers forgot the basics, were “a half step behind” and that proved costly in their National Basketball Association (NBA) home clash on Dec 18.
Although Philadelphia star Joel Embiid had a 40-point double-double, the Chicago Bulls withstood all of that to snap the Sixers’ six-game winning streak with a 108-104 victory.
Coby White scored 24 points and Nikola Vucevic added 23 for the Bulls, who saw a 12-point lead to start the fourth quarter whittled to one point on Tyrese Maxey’s three-pointer with 33.2 seconds remaining.
DeMar DeRozan, who finished with 15 points, drained a trio of free throws to give Chicago some breathing room, and reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Embiid came up empty on two possessions in the waning seconds.
Embiid added 14 rebounds and six assists to notch his 11th straight game of at least 30 points and 10 rebounds, while Maxey weighed in with 29 points but the Sixers could not maintain the momentum after racing to a 16-4 lead in the opening minutes.
“I think we kind of forgot our fundamentals,” Cameroonian centre Embiid said.
“I thought we made a pretty good run. We came back in the game... we had opportunities, we came back. We fought. Just came up short.”
Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse was more scathing in his assessment.
“We were just a half step behind on some stuff and they beat us to some rebounds,” he said.
“Some of our defensive stuff, while good at times, wasn’t good enough on others. And we just didn’t get enough good enough individual performances around the horn that we’ve been getting.”
With the loss, the Sixers remain third in the Eastern Conference on 18-8, behind the Boston Celtics (20-5) and the Milwaukee Bucks (19-7).
Western Conference leaders the Minnesota Timberwolves rallied late for a 112-108 victory over the Heat in Miami to match Boston for best record in the league.
Anthony Edwards scored 32 points and Karl-Anthony Towns added 18 for the Timberwolves, who tightened the defensive screws in the second half to overcome an early 17-point deficit.
Down by six going into the final period, Minnesota took the lead on Michael Conley’s three-pointer with 8:37 to play.
Miami edged ahead again before Naz Reid’s turnaround shot gave the Wolves a one-point advantage and they did not trail again.
Minnesota notched their league-leading seventh win when trailing by double digits at any point in the game and centre Rudy Gobert said the team need to find a way to start stronger.
“It takes for us to get punched in the face for us to wake up and then do the things that we need to do,” he said. “Every time we do the things we’re supposed to do, especially defensively, we put ourselves in position to win the game.”
The Wolves are top in the West, ahead of the Oklahoma City Thunder (17-8). Defending champions the Denver Nuggets are third on 18-10.
The Nuggets used a balanced attack to overcome a big night by Dallas’ Luka Doncic in a 130-104 home victory over the Mavericks.
Jamal Murray scored 22 points, Aaron Gordon added 21, Reggie Jackson had 20 as six Denver players scored in double figures.
Nikola Jokic had a quiet night with eight points, nine rebounds and seven assists, but with the rest of the Nuggets firing it was enough to withstand Doncic’s 38 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.
In Atlanta, the Hawks piled more misery on the Detroit Pistons, handing them a 24th straight defeat, 130-124.
Trae Young scored 31 points and handed out 15 assists for the Hawks, who led wire-to-wire.
Cade Cunningham scored a career-high 43 points for Detroit, but the Pistons are two defeats away from matching the league’s longest losing streak in a single season – 26 games by the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers and 2013-14 Sixers. AFP
