76ers rally past Heat, tighten East race
Knicks announce Randle out for season, then beat Kings
MIAMI — Tyrese Maxey scored 37 points, Joel Embiid added 29 and the Philadelphia 76ers topped the Miami Heat 109-105 on Thursday night to tighten the Eastern Conference playoff chase.
Maxey was one rebound shy of a triple-double, finishing with 11 assists and nine boards for Philadelphia. Kelly Oubre Jr. scored 18 points for the 76ers, who moved within a half-game of Miami for No. 7 in the East.
Terry Rozier had 22 points and Jimmy Butler added 20 for Miami, which entered the night No. 6 in the East but ceded that spot back to the Indiana Pacers.
Bam Adebayo had 14, Haywood Highsmith scored 12, Kevin Love had 11 points and 16 rebounds off the bench and Nikola Jovic added 11 points for Miami.
Embiid, in his second game back after missing two months following surgery on the meniscus in his left knee, shot 11 for 25, and the 76ers were outscored by 19 points in his 32-plus minutes.
KNICKS 120, KINGS 109: In New York, Jalen Brunson had 35 points and 11 assists, Josh Hart scored a season-high 31 points and New York erased a 21-point deficit to beat Sacramento.
Hours after announcing that Julius Randle would have right shoulder surgery and miss the rest of the season, the Knicks showed why they might still be dangerous without him. Hart shook off a sprained right wrist to shoot 14 for 19 and add nine rebounds and eight assists, and Donte DiVincenzo scored 21 points.
The Knicks tied Orlando for the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference at 45-31.
De’Aaron Fox had 29 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for the Kings, who missed a chance to tie New Orleans and Phoenix for sixth in the West.
WARRIORS 133, ROCKETS 110: In Houston, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson scored 29 points each and Golden State beat Houston to stretch its winning streak to a season-high six games.
The Warriors built a 15-point lead by halftime behind 21 points by Thompson. He made seven 3-pointers with five of them coming in the first half.
Jabari Smith Jr. had 24 points to lead the Rockets, who dropped their third game in a row after winning their previous 11 games.
MAVERICKS 109, HAWKS 95: In Dallas, Luka Doncic finished with 25 points after a rare scoreless first quarter and Dallas stayed alone in fifth place in the Western Conference with a victory over Atlanta.
Kyrie Irving scored 26 points and Doncic had 12 rebounds and eight assists as the Mavericks opened a stretch of three home games in four days with their 12th victory in 14 games.
The juggled home slate came after a scheduled game at Golden State in January was postponed following the death of Warriors assistant coach Dejan Milojevic.
“Opportunity has hair on her forehead but is bald behind. If you meet her, seize her, for once let slip, Jove himself cannot catch her again.” — Phaedrus
As South today, you are faced with another challenge to make the most of a poor dummy. Partner’s raise after the double shows a weak hand, but it actually turns out to be decent — in context.
In four spades, you can see you will need to take a winning finesse in either spades or diamonds, but you do not have the luxury of trying each in turn. The only way to cultivate an entry to dummy is to give up one of those finesses.
In isolation, the best approach is surely to lay down the spade ace and another spade. You will make the hand if the spade king falls singleton, or the diamond king is onside. The diamond king is less likely to drop, given you have fewer cards in that suit.
In the context of the hand however, you know West has short spades after his takeout double. East is therefore more likely to hold the spade king, while West rates to hold the diamond king, having shown length in the side suits. Thus, you should abandon the diamond finesse, winning the heart lead and playing diamonds from hand to force an entry to table. Be careful to lead a low diamond rather than cashing the ace first. The diamond king cannot possibly be singleton based on the bidding, and cashing the ace would allow East to score a thirdround ruff if he has a doubleton.
West takes his king and continues hearts. You ruff the third, cross to dummy in diamonds, then lead the spade queen and continue with the spade 10. You finesse again, to pick up trumps for no losers.
ANSWER: You could underbid with an invitational three spades, force to game with three no-trump (showing six good spades), invent a force to game with a threediamond call, or raise to two no-trump to denote a balanced 18-19. With no singletons and good stoppers, I would go for the last of these. A spade filler and an outside trick is probably all we need for nine tricks in no-trump.
If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, e-mail him at bobbywolff@mindspring.com. Copyright 2024, Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS