Jazz edge Sixers, Rockets rout Warriors
LOS ANGELES: Donovan Mitchell scored 24 points as the Utah Jazz slipped past Philadelphia 106-104 on Wednesday on an evening when 76ers guard Ben Simmons suffered a shoulder injury.
Mitchell also had eight assists while Bojan Bogdanovic finished with 20 points and six rebounds and Joe Ingles came off the bench to score a season high 16 points for the Jazz, who ended a two game losing skid.
“I was just trying to find ways to get my teammates involved and make it easier on myself,” Mitchell said. “We had more urgency. We lost two games because of offensive rebounds so we practised hard and it showed tonight.”
Mike Conley scored 15 points while Rudy Gobert delivered 14 points and 16 rebounds in the win.
Simmons had just two points in 10 minutes before leaving with 5:20 minutes left in the second quarter with right shoulder injury. Simmons reportedly has a sprained AC joint and was to be examined by team doctors yesterday.
The game marked the return of Sixer Joel Embiid who served a two-game ban for an aggressive wrestling match with Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns on Oct 30.
Embiid finished with 27 points and 16 rebounds but was just five of 16 from the field as Philadelphia lost their second straight game.
Josh Richardson contributed 24 points, Tobias Harris added 16 and Raul Neto had 11 for the 76ers.
Elsewhere, the Houston Rockets rolled over the injury-riddled Golden State Warriors 129-112, sending last season’s NBA finalists to their sixth defeat in their past eight games.
James Harden finished with 36 points and 13 assists and shot six of 16 from beyond the arc for the hosts Rockets in front of a crowd of 18,000 at the Toyota Center arena.
The contest was expected to be a high-scoring affair as the Rockets and Warriors are 29th and 28th in the NBA in points allowed.
The line-up the Warriors used on Wednesday was a shadow of the team that reached the NBA finals last season where they lost to the Toronto Raptors.
Even before Stephen Curry broke his hand recently they were already reeling from a long term injury to Klay Thompson and the loss of Kevin Durant.
Also, Pascal Siakam had 23 points and 13 rebounds, Kyle Lowry scored 24 and the reigning NBA champions Toronto Raptors outduelled the Sacramento Kings 124-120.