Late shot lifts Raptors over 76ers
Stanley Johnson scored the tiebreaking basket in the lane with 4.9 seconds remaining, giving the Toronto Raptors a 125-121 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday in Lake Buena Vista that made a winner of Adrian Griffin.
Raptors coach Nick Nurse let his assistant coach run the team and they responded with a late run from the bottom of their bench, long after Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid had ended his night, to improve to 6-1 in the restart.
Kyle Lowry and Chris Boucher each scored 19 points for the Raptors.
Embiid played just the first half after missing a game with a left ankle injury. He also took a hit on the hand in this one and finished with five points in 14 minutes.
Tobias Harris scored 22 points and Furkan Korkmaz had 21 for the 76ers, who became locked into the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference earlier Wednesday, securing a first-round matchup against the Boston Celtics.
Griffin said Nurse approached him with the opportunity and the Raptors pulled it out for him by rallying from 10 down midway through the fourth quarter, and six down with under 2 minutes to play.
Pacers 108, Rockets 104: Myles Turner had 18 points, reserve Edmond Sumner added a seasonhigh 17 and Indiana held off a late rally by Houston and James Harden to break a five-game losing streak to the Rockets.
It looked as if the Pacers had locked up the win when they went up 104-90 with 5:05 remaining. That’s when Harden got Houston going, cutting it to 106-104 on with a driving basket with 27 seconds to go.
Harden had 11 of Houston’s 14 points during the surge.
But after Victor Oladipo missed a three-pointer, Turner tipped out the rebound to Justin Holiday with six seconds left. Holiday hit two foul shots to finish off Indiana’s first victory over Houston since February 2017.
Indiana coach Nate McMillan let starters like Malcolm Brogdon and T.J. Warren rest because of lingering injuries. The coach was glad to see the rest of the lineup step up in their absence of the pair, who’ve combined to average 36 points in a game this season.
ELSEWHERE
Bucks: Giannis Antetokounmpo has been suspended for Milwaukee’s final game of the regular season, handed a one-game penalty Wednesday for headbutting Washington’s Moe Wagner.
It’s unknown if Antetokounmpo would have played in Thursday’s game against Memphis anyway, given that the Bucks have already secured the No. 1 overall seed in the NBA playoffs that start next week. Antetokounmpo will be eligible for Game 1 of the Bucks’ first-round series against Orlando., which will almost certainly be played Monday or Tuesday.