Short-handed 76ers rally to beat Pistons
76ers 109, Pistons 98: Seth Curry scored 23 points, Tyrese Maxey added 20 and short-handed Philadelphia beat host Detroit on Thursday night.
Joel Embiid had 19 points and nine rebounds for Philadelphia. Shake Milton scored 16 points.
The Sixers, playing for the second straight night, only used eight players. Furkan Korkmaz (wrist) sat out, while former Pistons forward Tobias Harris remained sidelined due to COVID-19 protocols.
Jeremi Grant scored 27 for the Pistons, but only five in the second half. Cade Cunningham had 18 points and 11 rebounds.
Detroit got 22 points from Grant on its way to a 66-63 halftime lead. Curry had 18.
Cunningham beat the shot clock from the center-court logo with 7:20 left in the third, his first make after missing his first 18 career 3-point attempts.
Celtics 95, Heat 78: Jaylen Brown scored 17 points to lead six Boston players in double figures, and the visiting Celtics played airtight defense for a second consecutive night on the way to easily beating Miami.
Dennis Schroder scored 14, Aaron Nesmith had 13 and Romeo Langford scored 12 for Boston, which swept a back-to-back in Orlando and Miami by giving up an average of 78.5 points on 33% shooting.
The Celtics topped the Magic 92-79 on Wednesday.
Jimmy Butler scored 20 points for Miami, which lost point guard Kyle Lowry to a sprained left ankle in the third quarter as part of an utterly forgettable night. The Heat shot 35%, 9 for 41 from 3-point range and managed a total of 55 points in the final three quarters.
Duncan Robinson had 16 points on 5-for-17 shooting – all of it from 3-point range – for the Heat, and Bam Adebayo scored 13.
Jazz 116, Hawks 98: Jordan Clarkson bounced back from his worst game of the season, scoring 30 points to lead Utah over host Atlanta despite the absence of Donovan Mitchell.
Utah’s star guard did not dress because of a sprained right ankle, but Clarkson picked up the slack off the bench to give the Jazz their eighth victory in nine games this season.
The game was tight through the first three quarters, with the Jazz heading to the final period up 75-74. But Utah blew away the home team in the final 12 minutes, knocking down eight 3-pointers while hitting 13 of their final 22 shots.
Clarkson was coming off a miserable game Tuesday night, going 0 for 11 from 3-point range.
Undeterred, last season’s Sixth Man of the Year kept right on firing against the Hawks, hitting 4 of 10 beyond the arc and 10 of 19 overall for a season high in points.
Trae Young scored 21 points for the Hawks, who shot just 42.7% from the field, including 7 of 28 on 3-pointers.