Donovan Mitchell returned to lead a balanced attack that overpowered a career-best, 47-point performance by Ja Morant and allowed the Utah Jazz to even their Western Conference playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies with a 141-129 victory on Wednesday night in Salt Lake City.
Mitchell, who finished with a team-high 25 points, bombed in five 3-pointers in 10 tries. Teammates Mike Conley and Joe Ingles buried three apiece as the top-seeded Jazz, who led the NBA in the regular season in both most 3-pointers made and fewest allowed, dominated the eighth-seeded Grizzlies from beyond the arc to offset an upset loss in the series opener.
With Mitchell still nursing a sprained right ankle, Memphis shocked the West’s regular-season champs by holding them to 12-for-47 (25.5 percent) accuracy on 3-pointers in Game 1.
But Utah came out firing in the rematch, nailing 10 treys in the first half alone en route to a 74-54 lead at the break.
76ers 120, Wizards 95
Ben Simmons had 22 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, Joel Embiid added 22 points and seven rebounds and host Philadelphia took a 2-0 series lead with a victory over Washington.
Tobias Harris contributed 19 points and nine rebounds for the top-seeded Sixers. Furkan Korkmaz added 13 points and Matisse Thybulle registered five blocked shots and four steals off the bench.
Bradley Beal led the eighth-seeded Wizards with 33 points, while Rui Hachimura and Daniel Gafford added 11 each. Early in the fourth quarter, Russell Westbrook (10 points, 11 assists) appeared to injure his right ankle and was helped to the locker room.
Knicks 101, Hawks 92
Derrick Rose scored 26 points off the bench to lift host New York to a victory over Atlanta to even the series at 1-1.
Julius Randle recorded 13 of his 15 points in the third quarter and added 12 rebounds for the Knicks, who erased a 15-point deficit to even the best-of-seven series at one win. Game 3 is on Friday in Atlanta.
Trae Young, who scored 20 of his 30 points in the first half for the Hawks, was serenaded with boos every time he touched the ball. The Madison Square Garden faithful’s response was a result of Young putting his fingers to his lips to silence the crowd following Atlanta’s 107-105 victory in the series opener on Sunday.
–Field Level Media