MANILA – Philadelphia 76ers evened their NBA Eastern Conference semifinals series with the Atlanta Hawks, 1-1, following a 118-102 Game 2 domination on Tuesday night (Wednesday in the Philippines) at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Joel Embiid anchored the 76ers with his double-double of 40 points and 17 rebounds, while Tobias Harris, Seth Curry, and Shake Milton scored 22, 21, and 14 points, respectively.
The 76ers started the game with a 28-10 scoring blast behind early conversions from Harris, but the Hawks slowly clawed their way back in the second period to come to 55-57 at the half.
Philadelphia banked on baskets of Embiid at the start of the period to grab a 75-65 lead. However, Atlanta rallied to take an 80-79 edge. The 76ers regained the court dominance at 91-84 on baskets by Milton and Mattisse Thybulle.
The 76ers ousted the Hawks in the fourth quarter following hits from Dwight Howard, George Hill, and Milton as the lead ballooned to 110-89.
Trae Young and Danilo Gallinari have 21 points each for the Hawks. Kevin Huerter dropped 20 markers, while Bogdan Bogdanovic and Clint Capela chipped in 14 and 10 points, respectively.
Meanwhile, Utah Jazz recovered from a flat start to overpower Los Angeles Clippers, 112-109, in Game 1 of their NBA Western Conference semifinals series.
Trailing for most of the match, the Jazz controlled the fourth period behind Donovan Mitchell and Filipino-American guard Jordan Clarkson for a 91-85 lead.
The Clippers were hanging at 93-96 after a shot from Kawhi Leonard the Jazz then widened the gap to 103-93 with hits from Bojan Bogdanovic.
The Clippers made their last push at 109-112 after Paul George’s triple. They even have the chance to tie up, but Utah’s Rudy Gobert blocked the triple attempt of Marcus Morris Sr.
Mitchell top-scored with 45 points while Clarkson and Bogdanovic added 18 markers apiece for the Jazz, which took a 1-0 edge in the best-of-seven series.
BOX SCORE:
PHILADELPHIA 118 – Embiid 40, Harris 22, Curry 21, Milton 14, Howard 6, Green 5, Simmons 4, Hill 4, Thybulle 2, Scott 0, Korkmaz 0, Maxey 0.
ATLANTA 102 – Young 21, Gallinari 21, Huerter 20, Bogdanovic 14, Capela 10, Collins 8, Williams 6, Knight 2, Hill 0, Snell 0, Fernando 0, Okongwu 0, Mays 0.
QUARTERSCORES:
33-20, 57-55, 91-84, 118-102./PN
