LOS ANGELES, United States —
Joel Embiid poured in 25
points and 19 rebounds to power the Philadelphia 76ers to a 100–87
victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday.
اضافة اعلان
Embiid, who also had five blocks and four assists in front
of the crowd of 20,600 at Wells Fargo Center, recorded his 22nd straight game
with at least 25 points.
Philadelphia played their first game since making a
blockbuster trade with the
Brooklyn Nets on Thursday that saw former
league MVP James Harden join his third team in the last two years.
Philadelphia sent Australia's Ben Simmons, Andre Drummond,
Seth Curry, and two first-round draft picks to the Nets for Harden and Paul
Millsap.
Since the players haven't completed their physicals, the
76ers played without all five, leaving them short-handed. Simmons, of
Melbourne, has yet to play in a game this season.
"It sucks to lose some of my teammates. Seth did such a
great job for us.
"But
James Harden is one of the best players in the
league. It is pretty exciting. You add someone like that and your chances to
win the championship are even bigger. I am excited to get on with it,"
said Embiid.
Tyrese Maxey added 24 points and Tobias Harris contributed
17 points and 11 rebounds in the win. Matisse Thybulle added 10 points.
Derrick Favors led the Thunder with 16 points while Luguentz
Dort and Aleksej Pokusevski added 15 each.
Darius Bazley had 14 points and 15 rebounds as Oklahoma City
lost their fourth straight.
Embiid scored 11 points in the third quarter as the 76ers
led 77-61 going into the fourth.
After a 9-2 run, the Thunder got within 87-75 halfway
through the fourth.
Theo Maledon hit a three-pointer with 2:41 remaining and the
Thunder trailed 88-82. But Harris responded with a three-pointer of his own and
Maxey made a layup to extend the lead to 11 points.
Head coach Mark Daigneault said he was pleased the Thunder
did not make a lot of deals at the trade deadline.
"We love our guys. We really like our team," he
said. "We like the direction we're headed. We're obviously early in the
process. We have a lot of confidence in not only the guys we have right now,
but where we're going."
Elsewhere, Jayson Tatum scored 24 points as the Boston
Celtics withstood a triple-double from
Nikola Jokic with a 108-102 win over the
Denver Nuggets.
The Celtics trailed 88–86 with 8:26 left before outscoring
the Nuggets 22–14 to close the game out.
Marcus Smart delivered 22 points and
Robert Williams
finished with 15 points and 16 rebounds as the host Celtics stretched their
winning streak to seven games.
Former San Antonio guard Derrick White came off the bench to
score 15 points in his first game since being acquired in a trade on
Thursday.
Triple-double
Jokic paced Denver with 23 points, 16 rebounds, and 11
assists in the loss. Jokic has recorded a triple-double in eight of his past 14
games.
Aaron Gordon scored 17 points, Facundo Campazzo had 14, Will
Barton added 13, and Bones Hyland had 10 for the Nuggets, who have lost four of
their last six.
In Chicago,
DeMar DeRozan finished with 35 points, six
rebounds, and six assists to lead the Chicago Bulls to a 134–122
victory over the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves.
Also, Caris LeVert and
Jarrett Allen each scored 22 points
as the Cleveland Cavaliers rallied from a 21 point deficit to beat the Indiana
Pacers 120–113.
It marked the largest comeback of the season for Cleveland,
who stormed back from a 20-point deficit Sunday against Indiana.
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