The narrow victories of the Los Angeles Clippers over the Golden State Warriors and the Milwaukee Bucks over the Houston Rockets marked a rich Monday in the NBA, which also saw yet another defeat for Philadelphia, which shares last place in the Eastern Conference with Washington .
In Los Angeles, the Clippers led by Norman Powell (23 points) squandered a 15-point lead at the start of the third quarter, finding themselves only three points ahead at the start of the fourth on Stephen Curry’s team (26 points), but in the final head-to-head, the guests missed out on extra time right at the buzzer due to a missed three-point shot by Gary Payton, thus losing 102-99. The coach of the Clippers (8 wins and 7 losses), Tyronn Lue, said he was proud of his team, capable of keeping up with the second best team on the West coast (10-3) until the end.
The Bucks instead have to thank Damian Lillard, returning after missing three games due to a concussion, for the 101-100 victory over Houston, who was coming off five consecutive victories. The home point guard got the decisive basket with a penetration 4 seconds from the siren of a hard-fought and balanced match. Brook Lopez’s 27 points and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 20 were not enough for the Rockets to extend their positive streak.
In Phoenix, Franz Wagner scored 32 points to help the Orlando Magic earn a 109-99 victory over the Suns, who were missing the injured Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal and Jusuf Nurkic.
Phoenix, after a burning start to the season (8-1) has reversed course and is now at 9-6, with coach Mike Budenholzer inviting the team to hold on while waiting for the injured players to return. Things went worse for the Sixers, who collapsed 106-89 at the home of the Miami Heat after leading by 19 points at the start of the second quarter. For Philadelphia, two wins and eleven knockouts so far, only 11 points have come from its star Joel Embiid, flattened by general mediocrity.
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