Celtics limp into playoff spot
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla continues to harp on the little things and the margins but they’re not getting through to his team. The Celtics keep building double-digit leads and blowing them.
The Celtics clinched a playoff spot on Saturday night because of the Heat’s loss to the Bulls, but it won’t matter if these problems persist.
The same movie keeps playing over and over for the Celtics, who are stuck in neutral as the playoffs near. A night after they seemed to be building some positive momentum on this road trip with a win over the Blazers, the Celtics fell back into bad habits and let their foot off the gas again. They responded in stretches but couldn’t overcome their flaws as they dropped another critical game with a frustrating 118-117 loss to the Jazz in Salt Lake City.
The Celtics trailed by one with five seconds left and the ball, but Grant Williams — who was otherwise having a redemption night after hitting a career-high seven 3-pointers — got the ball and tried to make a play at the rim, but was blocked by Walker Kessler to seal the loss.
With the loss, the Celtics dropped to third in the Eastern Conference behind the 76ers on percentage points with 10 games left in the regular season.
Sixers push win streak to 6 games
Joel Embiid briefly looked like he would return to the floor, when he received a replacement 76ers jersey from an equipment staffer during a timeout with less than six minutes remaining against the Indiana Pacers.
The wardrobe change was unnecessary. Backup center Paul Reed finished inside, Tobias Harris hit a tough turnaround jumper at the end of the shot clock, and Reed threw down a dunk off a feed from Shake Milton to propel their team to a 22-point cushion.
That finished off the latest Sixers onslaught, this by a 141-121 score without starters James Harden and P.J. Tucker Saturday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, to clinch their eighth consecutive victory.
The winning streak matches the longest of the season for the surging Sixers (48-22), who have brilliantly navigated what appeared to be a daunting March filled with road games and back-to-backs. And it helps them keep pace in the Eastern Conference playoff standings, at least temporarily moving within a half-game of the second-place Boston Celtics, who played the Utah Jazz late Saturday.
Embiid put together another methodically dominant performance, with 31 points on 10-of-15 shooting, seven rebounds, and seven assists in 30 minutes.
Derozan leads Bulls past Heat
Demar Derozan scored 24 points to lead a balanced Bulls offense and Chicago held off a late surge by Miami to beat the Heat 113-99 on Saturday night.
Derozan, the former Spurs star, shot 9 of 12 from the floor to help the Bulls sweep the season series from the Heat. Coby White made four 3-pointers and finished with 18 points, Zach Lavine also had 18 and Patrick Beverley added 17 as the Bulls shot 56.3 percent (45 for 80) from the field overall, including 17 for 34 from 3-point range.
Chicago nearly blew all of a 27-point lead after Nikola Vucevic converted a 3-point play with slightly more than 10 minutes left in the third quarter. Miami, led by 24 points from Jimmy Butler and 23 from Bam Adebayo, cut its deficit to 93-90 with nine minutes left.