The Toronto Raptors started a rare feat in triple overtime while the Dallas Mavericks had no trouble with the Indiana Pacers. Unlike the Philadelphia 76ers, who needed a Joel Embiid in top form against Tyrese Haliburton and his career high.
New Orleans Pelicans (18-31) – Boston Celtics (26-25) 97:107 (BOXSCORE)
- Celtics players without “Jay” in their name didn’t do much against the Pelicans, but they didn’t need to. Jayson Tatum led a furious start from Boston, taking little more than four minutes to give the Pelicans their first 11 points. He ended up with 38 points at 17/26 FG, 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals – all his misses came from downtown (4/13).
- The Celtics rushed into the game to a 27-8 lead thanks to Jaylen Brown also making a good start and 31 points overall at 11/20 FG and contributed a nasty ankle breaker. The Pelicans stayed in the game for a long time at 36:26 in the third quarter, but did not catch up in the last twelve minutes of the game.
- The Pelicans’ best scorer came off the bench and was Jose Alvarado, 19 points (3/4 3P) in just 19 minutes meant a new career high for the undrafted rookie. All of the Pels starters also scored double digits, but none of them played more than Willy Hernangomez’s 14 points. Josh Hart had a double-double with 10 and 13 rebounds. The Pelicans competed without Brandon Ingram, Jonas Valanciunas and Kira Lewis Jr., among others.
- The Celtics reservists couldn’t keep up with Alvarado’s 19 points, but Boston only played with a rotation of eight players up until garbage time. Dennis Schröder remained particularly pale with 4 points (1/4 FG) and 4 turnovers in just under 16 minutes. Robert Williams III (8) collected 16 rebounds and blocked 4 throws.
Philadelphia 76ers (30-19) – Sacramento Kings (18-33) 103:101 (BOXSCORE)
- Strange final seconds in Philadelphia. After Tyrese Haliburton reduced the Kings’ deficit to -2 with a wild fadeaway, Georges Niang went for a throw-in with 11.1 seconds to play. However, Niang couldn’t find a free sixer and appeared to take a time-out in time. The referee saw things differently, however, and called out “the fastest 5-second violation ever,” as analyst Doris Burke jokingly remarked.
- The discussions about these decisions would have become intense after the game if the Kings could have equalized or won the game. However, the Sixers put up an impressive defensive performance with their top five defenders in the last 11 seconds, giving Harrison Barnes just one desperation throw as the clock ran out.
- For a long time it looked like the Sixers would have to despair in the end. Even without De’Aaron Fox, who missed his fourth straight game with an ankle injury, the Kings led for three quarters of the game and at times by +17. Tyrese Haliburton in particular made sure of this, who pulverized his previous career high in points (28) with 38 points (11/19 FG, 5/9 3P).
- On the other side, however, Joel Embiid was once again outstanding, even if he had great initial difficulties. His first 8 points came from the free-throw line, and it wasn’t until just before the break that he scored his first goal from the field. After that, however, Embiid really turned it up and increased to 36 (10/18 FG, 14/18 FT), 12 rebounds and 6 assists. Tobias Harris (16, 7/12 FG), Tyrese Maxey (13, 7 assists) and reservist Danny Green (11) still had double digits.
- Harrison Barnes (16, 8 rebounds, 5 assists), Davion Mitchell (15, 5 assists) and Richaun Holmes (10, 9 rebounds) did the same for the Kings. Sacramento lacked support from the bench, Buddy Hield failed by 2 points at 0/7 from long range.
Miami Heat (32-18) – Toronto Raptors (24-23) 120:124 3OT (BOXSCORE)
- What a game, what a feat by the Raptors! Head coach Nick Nurse stopped making bench substitutions at the 8:44 time mark of the fourth quarter, with the Raptors’ starters playing through from there, a total of 53 minutes or more each. In the first overtime she brought Scottie Barnes to 100:100 with two free throws.
- Gary Trent Jr. also equalized from the free-throw line there shortly before the end of time, after a steal by OG Anunoby against Jimmy Butler Toronto even had the chance to win directly, but Anunoby missed a turnaround from the middle distance. In the second overtime, Tyler Herro had the chance to win the game after the throw-in worked well and Herro shot a floater in the middle of the basket, but barely touched the ring.
- Also in the third overtime Herro took over the responsibility and the last three finishes of the heat, but was unsuccessful. Pascal Siakam took the game out of reach at the free throw line. Especially bitter for Butler, who was the man of the game with 37 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks, but didn’t strike in the crucial moments. Before and in the first overtime he would have secured the win with one hit, but after a perfect start of 7/7 FG he only hit 7/19 from the field.
- The Raptors’ top scorer was Trent Jr. with 33 points (5/15 3P), Siakam was not far from a very rare 5×5 game with 21 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 blocks and steals each. Anunoby also had a double-double (20, 14 rebounds), with Barnes (22, 9 rebounds) and Fred VanVleet (19, 8 assists) just missing out. Nurse used only three reservists, none of them longer than 16 minutes.
- A total of seven players scored in double digits for Miami, but Herro needed 22 shots (3/14 3P) for his 13 points. Duncan Robinson remained completely without a point in 20 minutes (0/5 3P). Kyle Lowry missed the seventh straight game due to personal reasons.
