WASHINGTON (AP) — After the Philadelphia 76ers lost NBA MVP finalist Joel Embiid to a sore right knee late in the first quarter Monday night, they lost their Game 4 lead — and their chance at the franchise’s first playoff sweep in 36 years.
Bradley Beal’s 27 points, Russell Westbrook’s 12th career playoff triple-double and Washington’s strategy of fouling Ben Simmons whenever possible down the stretch all helped the Wizards beat the 76ers 122-114 to cut Philadelphia’s series edge to 3-1.
Game 5 of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series is Wednesday at Philadelphia.
Won’t be easy for that one to be as eventful as this one was, including the third-quarter sight of a fan running out of the stands and onto the court before being slammed to the ground by a security guard.
Nothing had as much of an effect on the outcome and, potentially, the rest of this postseason for Philadelphia, the East’s No. 1 seed, as what happened to Embiid, who came into the night averaging better than a point per minute in the series.
JAZZ 120, GRIZZLIES 113
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Donovan Mitchell scored 30 points, and the top-seeded Utah Jazz grabbed a 3-1 lead.
Now the team with the NBA’s best record in the regular season can close out this first round, best-of-seven series Wednesday night in Game 5 in Salt Lake City.
All-Star Rudy Gobert scored 13 of his 17 points in the third quarter. Jordan Clarkson, the NBA’s 6th man of the year winner, scored 24. Bojan Bogdanovic added 13, Mike Conley had 11.
Ja Morant, who averaged 33.7 points through the first three games, scored 23 and had 12 assists for Memphis. Dillon Brooks and Jaren Jackson Jr. each added 21, De’Anthony Melton had all 15 of his points in the fourth quarter and Jonas Valanciunas finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
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