HEAT MAKING IT LOOK TOO EASY
Bam Adebayo caught a lob for an alley-oop dunk midway through the fourth quarter, then threw a lob to Jimmy Butler for another dunk about a minute later. Both were very easy. Joel Embiid could complicate those plays going forward — and the Miami Heat are heading north expecting that he might be waiting for them.
Adebayo scored 23 points, Butler had 22 points and 12 assists, and the Heat beat the Philadelphia 76ers 119-103 on Wednesday night for a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
“It’s always nice to win,” Butler said. “We just did what we’re supposed to do at home.”
Victor Oladipo scored 19 points on his 30th birthday and Tyler Herro added 18 for the Heat, the East’s No. 1 seed. Oladipo had 10 of those points in the fourth quarter.
Tyrese Maxey scored 34 points for Philadelphia, which got 21 from Tobias Harris and 20 from James Harden.
“We’ve just got to go back to the drawing board and try to figure it out,” Maxey said.
A 10-0 run in the fourth turned an eight-point Miami lead into an 18-point edge, sealing the win and ensuring the Heat would hold home court before the series shifts north. Game 3 is Friday in Philadelphia.
And now, the Heat will hope history holds — and the 76ers will hope it doesn’t.
Miami has taken a 2-0 lead in 18 previous series, including the first round this season against Atlanta, and won the matchup every time. The 76ers’ franchise has dropped the first two games of a matchup on 19 other occasions, never recovering to win the series.
The question going into Friday will revolve around whether Embiid could be ready for Game 3. The league’s scoring champion and MVP finalist is recovering from an orbital fracture and concussion and has, not surprisingly, been big-time missed by the 76ers.
“We don’t have a big man right now,” Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers lamented.
Adebayo surely isn’t complaining. He was 8 for 10 from the field and 8 for 8 from the line in Game 1; he followed that up with a 7for-11 night from the floor on Wednesday.
Suns 129, Mavericks 109: Chris Paul scored 28 points, including 14 in another spectacular fourth quarter, to lead host Phoenix over Dallas for a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinals.
Paul — a 12-time All-Star who turns 37 years old on
Friday — almost single-handedly turned a tight game into a comfortable victory, the Suns’ 11th win in a row against the Mavericks counting regular-season games.
The Mavs led 60-58 at halftime but the Suns quickly recaptured the lead after Devin Booker hit backto-back 3-pointers early in the third. The Suns took an 89-83 advantage going into the final quarter and it looked like a tough fight was coming.
But that’s about the time Paul decided the game was his to control, hitting six shots in a row on everything from 3-pointers to midrange jumpers to layups. The feisty Mavericks finally didn’t have an answer. Booker hit a pair of 3-pointers midway through the fourth to give the Suns a 11495 lead.
Booker led the Suns with
30 points on 11-of-19 shooting, including 5 of 8 from 3point range. The Suns shot 64.5 percent overall and made 52 percent of their 3pointers.
Game 3 is Friday in Dallas.
The Mavericks will go home in a 2-0 hole, desperately needing contributions from someone other than Luka Doncic, who scored 35 points on 13-of-22 shooting two nights after a 45-point performance in Game 1. Reggie Bullock added 16 points.
Notable
Ben Simmons will have surgery to alleviate pain in his back caused by a herniated disk, the Brooklyn Nets said Wednesday.
The procedure will be done today. The Nets said it was decided upon after consultation with multiple back specialists.