And 50. After three straight away defeats (Warriors, Suns and Nuggets), the Sixers reacted at home by winning against the Mavericks (116-108), thus offering their 50th victory of the season . Manhandled by the Texans for a good part of the evening, the locals, who recorded the return of James Harden after four games away, were able to make the difference in the last quarter.
He missed a little “trick” in addition to the Mavs of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving who had nevertheless started the meeting very strongly. A four-point action from Josh Green, on a stupid fault by Georges Niang at the buzzer, allowed them to finish the first quarter with three possessions ahead (28-37).
Philadelphia then easily returned to the score before the visitors took advantage of a good passage in skill from Tim Hardaway Jr. to regain their distance. The Doncic – Irving pair then invited themselves to the party and Dallas offered themselves the biggest advantage of the match (46-58). Under the impetus of the Embiid – Harden pair opposite, Philly finally returned to the locker room five points behind (57-62).
The third quarter saw Tyrese Maxey get more enterprising in scoring for his team. But the latter, after briefly regaining the advantage in the third, had to wait until the fourth quarter to definitely take control. A last period where the Sixers shone in defense, limiting their opponents to only 17 points. One minute from the end, Luka Doncic, for example, came up against the rampart Joel Embiid in the circle.
WHAT YOU MUST REMEMBER
– The 10-0 that kills. For his second short stint of the evening, JaVale McGee had just dunked to give the Mavs a three-point lead (100-103) seven minutes from time. From there, Dallas started to go downhill. Facing the Texan replacement pivot, Joel Embiid chained a 3-point shot and a “fadeaway” in the racket. Then De’Anthony Melton sanctioned from afar in the corner before a new basket from Tyrese Maxey. What do these four actions that generated this 10-0 have in common? James Harden, behind the bindings, author of as many assists.
– fast fifties. After the Bucks and the Celtics, the Sixers are therefore the third team in the East to reach this symbolic bar of 50 successes. Even more symbolically, we have to go back to the 2001 season to see a Philadelphia team reach this milestone so “quickly”, after 76 games. That year, Allen Iverson was voted MVP and led his team to the NBA Finals. Same fate for Joel Embiid this season?
– The Mavs keep slipping. If the indicators are good for the team mentioned above, we really can not say the same for the Texans. The latter have thus just lost a fifth meeting in six games at the worst time. Still holding a positive record in mid-March, the Mavs are mainly losing ground on teams not on the way to qualifying for the playoffs but for the play-in. The Thunder, 10th, now has a success in advance, and even two with the “tie-breaker”. Dallas, which has five games left to play (in Miami and Atlanta, then at home, against the Kings, Bulls and Spurs) will therefore have to finish very strong, and count on defeats from the Thunder, the Pelicans and / or the Lakers.
TOPS/FLOPS
✅ De’Anthony Melton. Rather than the members of the Embiid – Harden – Maxey trio, who have been “ good without being great As Doc Rivers says, we stop on the performance of the former Grizzlies player, whose exterior address has done his team a lot of good. Author of an important award-winning basket in the last quarter, he finished with the best +/- of the match (+16).
✅ Tim Hardaway Jr.. After missing his first two long attempts, he reacted by signing a good evening of skill to complete the outings of the Doncic – Irving duo. He also has the only thing to do, to reach the 10 point mark, since even Christian Wood was content with 9 points… in just 12 minutes.
⛔ Reggie Bullock. His clumsiness behind the arc really weighed on his team, which shot 45% from afar if we exclude his 1/8 staff in this area. His -17 to score when he was in play says a lot.
KYRIE IRVING FACING A FAN, EPISODE 2
After having a fan expelled when his team moved to Charlotte a few days ago, Kyrie Irving had a new exchange with an opposing fan. Author of a 2 + 1 action just after the incident, the leader “invited” the spectator in question to continue talking to motivate him.
THE FOLLOWING
Sixers (50-26) : reception of the Raptors on Friday.
Mavs (37-40) : trip to Miami on Saturday.
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