SIn a LeBron James who was absent at the last minute, the Los Angeles Lakers fell this Thursday against the Philadelphia 76ers despite the fact that Anthony Davis dominated Joel Embiid in an extraordinary and succulent duel of pivots (105-87).
LeBron was chosen as one of the two All-Star captains (along with Kevin Durant) but was unable to celebrate on the court due to knee discomfort.
Without their star at the helm, the Lakers took refuge in a superb Davis who in his second game after returning from injury had 31 points (14 of 21 shooting), 12 rebounds and 4 blocks.
Joel Embiid had 26 points (9 of 20 shooting), 9 rebounds and 7 assists, another outstanding performance but slightly lower than the impressive level he showed in January (11 of 13 games over 30 points).
The Angelenos missed LeBron’s direction and intensity, but above all they failed from the perimeter with a terrible night in the triple (6 of 29).
Russell Westbrook scored 20 points (9-for-15 shooting) but was responsible for 6 of his team’s 17 turnovers.
Much finer in shooting (50% shooting from the field), the Sixers had a very effective Tobias Harris (23 points on 10-for-15 shooting) and remarkable Tyrese Maxey and Georges Niang (14 points per head).
The Sixers are fully into the East and have posted 13 wins in their 16 games since Christmas Day.
TWO TITANS OF PAINTING
In the golden age of “small” basketball, with a frenetic pace and non-stop triples, the NBA today witnessed the titanic confrontation between two huge pivots: Joel Embiid and Anthony Davis.
It seemed that Embiid had the upper hand at the start, asserting his size and power, but Anthony Davis responded to the challenge with flying colors and was very aggressive and agile against the Cameroonian (18-14 with 4.54 to play).
In one of his most outstanding plays, Davis (10 points in the first quarter) scored a great kill on Embiid, but in the fall he hurt his wrist and had to momentarily leave the game.
With the Lakers’ defense tighter on Embiid (8 points in the first quarter) and not afraid to make assists to cut him off, the Sixers activated the perimeter for an 11-0 run fueled by two 3-pointers from Danny Green and one more of Georges Niang (32-22).
At the beginning of the second quarter, the Lakers’ reserves became entangled in a worrying scoring drought and also saw how Tobias Harris let go of the Sixers and began to be a problem (41-29 with 8.23 to play).
Stanley Johnson was renewed today by the Lakers so, to celebrate, Frank Vogel sent him to fight Embiid.
The figure of the Sixers did not despair, despite the fact that he had more and more bodies on him, and took the opportunity to boldly assist teammates such as Matisse Thybulle (52-43 with 2.09 for the break).
However, the great protagonist of the first half was Davis.
Exquisite from midrange but also furious going to the rim (as in an impressive “alley-oop”), the Lakers center made 10 of his 13 shots to go to the locker room with 23 points and a great sense of authority over Embiid ( 13 points in the first half).
Despite the splendid performance of Davis, the Sixers controlled the scoreboard (54-48) against a ridiculous Lakers from the triple (1 of 10) and who lost 11 balls.
NOBODY HELP DAVIS
Angelenos had two pressing issues to resolve: exterior success and lack of focus.
They didn’t fix any of them after the break so the Sixers went one step further and with 8 points from an elusive Tyrese Maxey they put land in the middle (67-58 with 6.49 to go).
Davis, as dominant on offense as he was intimidating on defense, gave it his all to hold up a Lakers in which he was totally alone and who were beginning to fracture on all fronts.
Embiid detected that fragility, regained control of the paint in the absence of Davis, leaned on two triples from Niang and demoralized the Lakers with a devastating partial to close the quarter (88-68 after a 16-5 in three minutes) .
The Lakers were in a hurry and two triples by Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony -who faced a spectator in the stands- kept them alive at the beginning of the last quarter (90-74 with 9.25 to go).
However, Harris and Embiid finished with precision and without fright an unappealable victory for the locals.
