Davis, Holiday star, Pelicans sweep Blazers
76ers take lead as Wolves blow out Rockets
NEW ORLEANS, April 22, (RTRS): Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday each achieved career playoff scoring highs as the New Orleans Pelicans held off the Portland Trail Blazers 131-123 Saturday at Smoothie King Center.
Davis scored 47 points and Holiday 41 as the Pelicans clinched the best-of-seven playoff series with a four-game sweep. Rajon Rondo dished out 16 assists to go with seven points and seven rebounds for New Orleans.
CJ McCollum had 38 points, AlFarouq Aminu scored 27 points, Damian Lillard added 19 and Jusuf Nurkic contributed 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Trail Blazers.
Portland lost despite shooting 52.6 percent from the field and turning the ball over just six times. But the Blazers could not stop New Orleans, which shot 57 percent and assisted on 28 of their 45 baskets.
Davis and Holiday each scored 14 run and an 87-83 advantage.
Two free throws by Robert Covington gave the Sixers a 100-94 lead with 2:10 left. Five straight points by Wade cut the Sixers’ lead to 100-99.
The physical nature of the game continued and the fourth double technical in two games was whistled when Saric and Whiteside each got a technical with 5:27 left in the third.
Ersan Ilyasova drained a deep 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds left and the Sixers sliced Miami’s lead to 83-79 at the end of the third. Timberwolves 121, Rockets 105 Jimmy Butler and Jeff Teague combined for 51 points and the Minnesota Timberwolves finally produced a terrific offensive performance to blow past the Houston Rockets 121-105 in Game 3 of the Western Conference first-round playoff series at Target Center.
The starting backcourt of Butler and Teague outplayed the Rockets’ tandem of James Harden and Chris Paul and helped the Timberwolves cut the series deficit to 2-1 with Game 4 on Monday at Target Center. Andrew Wiggins added 20 points and Karl-Anthony Towns posted a double-double (18 points and 16 rebounds) as Minnesota shot 50 percent and rode a 69-point second half to victory.
The Rockets led 61-59 in the third quarter on a Harden 3-pointer before Minnesota rallied with a 9-2 spurt and never looked back. Towns scored eight points in the period as the Timberwolves crossed the 30-point plateau in a quarter for the first time in the series. They did so again with 34 points in the fourth.
Harden paired 29 points with seven assists while grabbing seven boards. Chris Paul scored 17 with six assists. Ryan Anderson, in his first action since April 3 after recovering from a sprained ankle, added four 3s for 12 points in 18 minutes off the bench.
Jazz 115, Thunder 102 Ricky Rubio recorded 26 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists for his first career postseason triple-double to lead the Utah Jazz to a 115-102 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night at Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City.
Donovan Mitchell contributed 22 points and 11 rebounds as the Jazz took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round playoff series. Joe Ingles made five 3-pointers while scoring 21 points, Rudy Gobert added 18 points and 12 rebounds and Derrick Favors tallied 11 points.