Top-seeded Heat go up 2-0
Paul’s big fourth quarter sparks Suns
MIAMI — Bam Adebayo scored 23 points, Jimmy Butler had 22 points and 12 assists, and the Miami Heat beat the Philadelphia 76ers 119-103 on Wednesday night for a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
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.
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 Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid could be ready for Game 3. The league’s scoring champion and MVP finalist 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 7-for-11 night from the floor on Wednesday.
It wasn’t just the absence of Embiid, though, that hurt Philadelphia. The 76ers were awful again from 3-point range, going 8 for 30.
SUNS 129, MAVERICKS 109:
In Phoenix, Chris Paul scored 28 points, including 14 in another spectacular fourth quarter, to lead the Suns 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.
The Mavs led 60-58 at halftime but the Suns quickly recaptured the lead after Devin Booker hit back-to-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 mid-range 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 114-95 lead.
Booker led the Suns with 30 points on 11-of-19 shooting.
The Mavericks 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.
Notes
WARRIORS: Coach Steve Kerr accused Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks of breaking “the code” after he injured Gary Payton II by attacking him from behind as the Warriors guard attempted a layup Tuesday night during Game 2 of their series.
Payton suffered a fracture to his left elbow and is scheduled to undergo an MRI Thursday to determine the severity of the injury.
NETS: Ben Simmons will have surgery to alleviate pain in his back caused by a herniated disk, Brooklyn said Wednesday. The procedure will be done Thursday.