The Indiana Pacers, fueled by a triple-double from recent arrival Pascal Siakam, snapped the Philadelphia 76ers’ six-game NBA winning streak on Thursday as Boston crushed Miami in an Eastern Conference finals rematch.
Elsewhere, another sparkling effort from OG Anunoby helped the New York Knicks thump the defending champion Denver Nuggets 122-84 and Western Conference contenders Minnesota held on for a 96-94 victory over the Nets in Brooklyn.
The Pacers were in charge throughout on the way to a 134-122 victory in Indianapolis, where Siakam scored 26 points with 13 rebounds and 10 assists to lead the charge against the sluggish 76ers.
“We just didn’t have any kind of defensive success,” admitted Sixers coach Nick Nurse.
Philadelphia’s reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid scored 31 points, but Nurse pulled Embiid and the rest of his starters for the fourth quarter as the Pacers romped despite the continued absence of injured Tyrese Haliburton.
Siakam’s first win since he was traded from Toronto last week came against his former Raptors coach Nurse.
“He’s shown what he can do,” Pacers center Myles Turner said of Siakam. “He sees the floor well — obviously he had a triple-double tonight.
“He plays with a lot of passion and energy. He fits right into our mold.”
In Miami, Jayson Tatum scored 26 points to lead seven Celtics players in double figures as Boston routed the Heat 143-110.
Five Boston players made at least three of the Celtics 22 three-pointers and the Celtics connected on better than 63% of their shots against the team that ended their title hopes last season.
After their agonizing exit to Miami last season, Tatum said the Celtics are fueled by a determination to “get over the hump”.
But he refused to get too excited about the gaudy margin of victory over their Eastern Conference rivals.
“If you win by 30 or two, it just counts as one win. We’ve still got a long way to go, but it’s a great way to close out the road trip.”
Boston got a scare when big man Kristaps Porzingis twisted his left ankle when he landed on Bam Adebayo’s foot midway through the third quarter.
He had to be helped to the locker room, but returned to watch the fourth quarter from the bench seeming not too worse for wear.
Timberwolves hang on
At Madison Square Garden, British forward Anunoby led the Knicks with 26 points and came up with six steals to help New York withstand a 31-point, 11-rebound double-double from Nuggets star Nikola Jokic.
Jokic hit the floor in pain after getting Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo’s hand in his left eye late in the first half. He exited briefly but returned to start the second half.
Jokic connected on 13 of 18 shots from the floor and sat out the fourth quarter along with the rest of Denver’s starters with the game out of reach.
It came down to the wire in Brooklyn, but 27 points from Karl Anthony-Towns and 24 from Anthony Edwards proved enough for the Timberwolves, who were up by 10 midway through the fourth quarter before the Nets closed the gap with an 8-0 run.
It was tied at 94-94 with 1:11 left to play, but an alley-oop dunk by Rudy Gobert with 58.1 seconds remaining proved to be the game-winner.
