INDIANA – The Indiana Pacers, fuelled by a triple-double from the “tremendous” Pascal Siakam, snapped the Philadelphia 76ers’ six-game National Basketball Association (NBA) winning streak on Jan 25 as the Boston Celtics crushed the Miami Heat in an Eastern Conference Finals rematch.
In other games, another sparkling effort from OG Anunoby helped the New York Knicks thump defending champions Denver Nuggets 122-84 and Western Conference leaders Minnesota Timberwolves held on for a 96-94 win over the Brooklyn Nets.
The Pacers were in charge throughout on the way to a 134-122 victory at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, where recent arrival Siakam scored 26 points with 13 rebounds and 10 assists to lead the charge against the sluggish Sixers.
“We made it our kind of game,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said.
“Siakam was obviously tremendous, the sixth triple-double of his career. His first, obviously, with the Pacers. When you have a power forward who gets a triple-double, it’s pretty special.”
Philadelphia’s reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid scored 31 points, but coach Nick Nurse pulled his star and the rest of his starters for the fourth quarter as the Pacers romped.
Siakam’s first win since he was traded from the Toronto Raptors last week came against his former coach Nurse.
“He’s shown what he can do. 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 mould,” Pacers centre Myles Turner said of the Cameroonian.
Over at Kaseya Centre, 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 team’s 22 three-pointers.
After their agonising exit to Miami in the East Finals last season, Tatum said the Celtics are charged by a determination to “get over the hump”. However, he refused to get too excited about the gaudy margin of victory over their rivals.
“(Even) if you win by 30, it just counts as one win. We’ve still got a long way to go,” he said.
Boston got a scare when big man Kristaps Porzingis twisted his left ankle when he landed on Bam Adebayo’s foot. He had to be helped to the locker room, but returned to watch the fourth quarter from the bench visibly okay.
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.
The Serb 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 at Barclays Centre, but 27 points from Karl-Anthony Towns and 24 from Anthony Edwards were enough for the Timberwolves. An alley-oop dunk by Rudy Gobert with 58.1 seconds remaining proved to be the game winner. AFP
