WASHINGTON DC — Jalen Brunson scored a career-high 41 points and Germany’s Maxi
Kleber added 25 points off the bench to spark the Dallas Mavericks over Utah
110–104 and level their
NBA playoff series.
اضافة اعلان
The host
Mavericks, playing without injured star Luka Doncic, deadlocked the
best-of-seven matchup at 1–1 as the scene shifts to Salt Lake City.
“We needed this
win,”
Brunson said. “I just tried to go out there and have fun. I’m just being
aggressive, trying to make plays, trying to engage multiple people, trying to
create problems. Just playing my game.”
Brunson sparked a
10–0
Dallas run to put the Mavs ahead 96–93 with 5:40 remaining.
Utah scored the
next five points but Kleber — who shot 8-for-11, all from 3-point range —
followed with back-to-back 3-pointers for a 102-98 Dallas lead and the Jazz
never matched them again.
“Maxi was huge,”
Brunson said. “We’ve just got to keep playing together, no matter what. We’re
just taking one game at a time. This was great, but we’ve got to look forward.”
The Mavericks
made a team-record 22 3-pointers but committed only three turnovers, tying an
NBA playoff record.
In other playoff
games Monday, the host
Philadelphia 76ers seized a 2–0 series lead by beating
Toronto 112–97 and Golden State ripped Denver 126–106 for a 2–0 series edge.
At San Francisco,
the visiting
Nuggets seized a 43–31 edge before Golden State closed the second
quarter on a 26–8 run over the last seven minutes for a 57–51 halftime lead.
The decisive
spurt, which began with a 16–0 run to give the Warriors their first lead, was
sparked by the three-guard alignment of Stephen Curry, Jordan Poole and
Klay Thompson.
“We’re executing
the best we can,” Poole said of the electrifying trio. “We’re ready to fight
night in and night out.”
Golden State
seized command in the third quarter, leading 101–81 entering the fourth, and
cruised to victory.
All-Star guard
Curry, coming off the bench in his second game back from a foot injury, scored
34 points on 12-of-17 shooting, going 5-of-10 from 3-point range in 23 minutes.
Poole had 29
points on 10-of-16 shooting and eight assists and Thompson contributed 21
points on 9-of-19 shooting.
Serbian center
Nikola Jokic, last season’s NBA Most Valuable Player, led Denver with 26 points
but was ejected after a second technical foul with seven minutes remaining.
Philadelphia’s
Joel Embiid, a Cameroonian center and like Jokic a 2022 NBA MVP finalist,
delivered game highs of 31 points and 11 rebounds.
Tyrese Maxey contributed 23 points, nine rebounds and a game-high eight assists for the
Sixers while Tobias Harris added 20 points and 10 rebounds and James Harden had
14 points, six rebounds and six assists.
As a result,
Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers took his 100th career NBA playoff triumph.
“We’ve got it
all. We’ve just got to put it all together on the floor,” Embiid said. “We have
to keep playing the way we’ve been playing. We know what we’ve got to do. We’ve
just got to execute.”
Embiid was
unhappy about the Sixers’ 14 turnovers but pleased with their physical play in
outrebounding the Raptors 41–35.
“These last two
games we’ve been physical, rebounding the ball well, getting second chances,”
Embiid said. “We didn’t do a good job taking care of the ball. We have to do a
better job next game.”
Toronto jumped
ahead 11–2 but the Sixers grabbed a 67–52 halftime lead and pulled away in the
third quarter.
The Raptors, led
by 26 points from O.G. Anunoby and 20 points each from Pascal Siakam and Fred
VanVleet, trimmed their deficit in the final minutes but never threatened.
Embiid suffered a
right elbow injury late in the third quarter but played to the finish.
“It was pretty sore,” he
said. “But it’s the playoffs. Got to fight through it.”
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