Adams’ season ends in spectacular fashion
AUCKLAND: Steven Adams’ NBA season is over after one of the greatest shots in playoff history knocked his Oklahoma City Thunder side out of the Western Conference playoffs.
Leading by 15 points with six minutes to play, the Thunder looked assured of keeping its season alive, but a furious Portland Trail Blazers comeback was capped off by a miraculous deep threepointer from Damian Lillard, giving Portland a 118115 victory and a 41 series victory.
Adams had 10 points, four rebounds, two assists and three blocks, but missed most of the final quarter due to foul trouble and matchup problems as the Thunder first pulled away to a big lead, then watched as Portland came charging back.
That is when Lillard hit the incredible gamewinner and sent OKC home.
‘‘Dame’’ Lillard’s 11.3m effort at the buzzer gave him 50 points for the game and he signed off by waving goodbye to the Thunder before being mobbed by his teammates. As the Thunder left the floor, Lillard circled the court, highfiving the home fans.
Lillard had 10 threepointers, breaking the franchise record.
‘‘In the NBA, teams go on runs, and before you make your breakthrough, adversity is going to hit — we knew it,’’ the 28yearold Lillard said.
‘‘We were going to have to fight through something to come out big. We made every play we needed to make to win this game.’’
It was the 12th straight road playoff loss for the Thunder, which has been eliminated in the opening round for three straight seasons.
The Thunder led 9088 going into the final quarter and went up 10590 with just under eight minutes left, only to wilt.
In the other Western Conference game yesterday, Denver beat San Antonio 10890 to lead the series 32 heading into game six at San Antonio tomorrow. Game seven, if necessary, would be played on Sunday in Denver.
In the Eastern Conference, Joel Embiid collected 23 points and 13 rebounds as the Philadelphia 76ers cruised to a wiretowire, 122100 victory over the visiting Brooklyn Nets yesterday and closed out their series in five games.
The 76ers advanced to the conference semifinals for the second straight season. They next will face the secondseeded Toronto Raptors in the first postseason meeting between the teams since the 2001 East semifinals, a series the 76ers won in seven, on the way to their most recent NBA finals appearance.
Also in the East, Kyle Lowry scored Toronto’s first nine points as part of a gameopening, 121 flurry to propel the Raptors to a blowout win over visiting Orlando and a 41 series win.
With a chance to wrap up the bestofseven set at home, the Raptors wasted no time taking charge. Lowry hit four field goals — including a 3pointer — in his early burst, and Kawhi Leonard added a threepoint play as Toronto went up by 11 before the game was three minutes old.
Leonard finished with 27 points and Pascal Siakam scored 24 for the Raptors, who had never previously won four straight games in the same playoff series. — NZME/Field Level Media