The New York Knicks and Boston Celtics aim to advance to the second round of the NBA playoffs with road victories while the Denver Nuggets look to force a Game 7 against the injured Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night.
Back-to-back losses have the Atlanta Hawks looking into their arsenal of defensive schemes and bench rotations as they search for an answer to defending a high-powered Knicks offense. Karl-Anthony Towns posted a triple-double on Saturday
night as Atlanta sealed off Jalen Brunson. The roles were reversed on Tuesday night when a freed-up Brunson scored 39 points.
“Everyone's going to make adjustments," Towns said. “So just being prepared for whatever the defense throws at us and being able to react accordingly.”
Defensively, the Knicks have found a solution for CJ McCollum, who stole Games 2 and 3 with clutch offensive performances. The Hawks' top scorers, Jalen Johnson and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, have struggled to replicate their regular-season success.
“Their defense never really let us establish consistently how we need to play to beat them,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said after Tuesday's 126-97 loss. “We need to execute on who we are and what we've done to be a good team, and like I said, that's hard against a team of their caliber.”
Meanwhile in Boston, 76ers' center Joel Embiid proved he'd been what the team was missing in just his second game back after an appendectomy. The former league MVP paced Philadelphia with 33 points and led the team to a 113-97 road win.
“He (Embiid) was dominant, especially in the second half,” Tyrese Maxey said after the game. “He did a really good job of just inserting himself, and you know, I was proud of him tonight, man.”
The Sixers, with newfound momentum, will try to tie the series at home while the Celtics hope to punch their ticket to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
“It’ll take everything we’ve got,” Maxey said Tuesday. “It’ll take even more of an effort than it did tonight.”
The Timberwolves might not have lost their confidence or swagger with the injuries to star Anthony Edwards and sparkplug Donte DiVincenzo, but their discipline and focus sure disappeared in the Game 5 defeat in Denver where they fell behind by as many as 27 points in the fourth quarter, with 25 turnovers the most glaring problem.
Though Edwards and DiVincenzo are their two best 3-point shooters and offensive creators, a revival of the smothering defense that fueled the rally in Game 2 and blowout wins in Games 3 and 4 will be the biggest key to the Timberwolves taking the series.
“There’s no doubt that we miss Donte and Ant and all the things they do offensively and defensively, but we played a large part of Game 4 without those guys, so we still have really good defenders elsewhere,” coach Chris Finch said. “I didn’t like our attack mindset the other day. I thought we kind of waited on our heels a little bit too much. We’ve just got to be better getting back to what we know will work for us better.”
When/Where to Watch: Game 6, 7 p.m. EDT (ESPN)
Series: New York leads 3-2.
Betting line: Knicks by 2.5.
What to Know: The Knicks rank second in postseason scoring, averaging 113.2 points per game while shooting 48.1% from the field and 38.4% from 3-point range. Atlanta trails in all three categories, averaging 102.6 points per game on 44.8% shooting from the field and 32.2% from beyond the arc. Brunson is coming off his best offensive performance of the series with 39 points. His 22 career playoff games with 30 or more points are the most in franchise history. Towns has found a rhythm as a passer, recording 16 assists over the past two games and averaging 2.2 more assists per game than he did in the regular season. Hawks' Alexander-Walker is averaging 14.2 points per game this postseason, down 6.8 from his regular-season average.
When/Where to Watch: Game 6, 8 p.m. EDT (Peacock)
Series: Boston leads 3-2.
Betting line: Celtics by 6.5.
What to Know: The Celtics top the NBA in postseason three-pointers made (84) and rebounds per game (47.6). Jaylen Brown has been Boston’s top scorer, averaging 25.8 points per game in the playoffs. Jayson Tatum leads in nearly every other category, averaging 10.6 rebounds, 7.6 assists and 1.4 steals per game. Payton Pritchard had a postseason career-high 32 points vs. Philadelphia on Sunday night. In two playoff games vs. Boston, Embiid has averaged 29.5 points almost exclusively from the field and free-throw line. Embiid is 1 for 11 on 3-pointers this series and 21 for 44 from the field. Maxey is averaging over 40 minutes per game in the playoffs with 25.6 points per game, 6.8 assists and 4.2 rebounds.
When/Where to Watch: Game 6, 9:30 p.m. EDT (ESPN)
Series: Minnesota leads 3-2.
Betting line: Nuggets by 5.5.
What to Know: Ayo Dosunmu and Mike Conley Jr. earned their first starts of the series for Minnesota with Edwards and DiVincenzo sidelined with injuries. Dosunmu leads the team with 21.8 points per game in the postseason, seven more than his regular-season average. Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are both averaging over 25 points per game for the Nuggets, with Jokic also contributing a team-high 14 rebounds per game and 9.4 assists. He has two triple-doubles in the series.
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AP Sports Writer Dave Campbell in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
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