Philadelphia fell into a 0-3 hole on Saturday after a 94-108 loss to New York to all but end their season. Joel Embiid made his return from a one-game injury layoff but he was well below his best on both ends of the floor, recording 18 points on just 45.8% TS%, along with six rebounds, five assists and three blocks. A hot start from Paul George had Philly humming in the first quarter, as the veteran forward scored all of his 15 points in a nine-minute barrage, but he cooled off dramatically after that, as did Philadelphia’s offence as a whole. That resulted in their worst offensive game of the series, with just a 104.6 offensive rating, shooting just 9/32 from deep and making just 13 free throws on the night, as Tyrese Maxey had a shaky 17 points and seven assists and VJ Edgecombe had just 11 points, four assists and two steals. Quentin Grimes really struggled, logging six points, although Kelly Oubre Jr had his best game of the series with 22 points, eight boards and some solid defence.
New York are one step closer to the conference finals after Game 3’s victory, with a sweep now really on the cards. Jalen Brunson was excellent in Saturday’s victory, finishing with 33 points, five rebounds and nine assists to record a bounce-back game after a bit of a quiet Game 2 and lead NY to the brink of the series win. Mikal Bridges continued his hot form, with 23 points on 71% TS%, and Landry Shamet was the shock contributor in OG Anunoby’s (hamstring) absence, recording 15 points on 5/6 shooting to add real value off the bench. Karl-Anthony Towns’ scoring touch was missing in this game but he provided seven assists and one block and Josh Hart had a trademark game with 12 points, 11 rebounds and three steals.
I’ll be surprised if the questionable Anunoby suits up in Game 4 but, as we saw on Saturday, it’s not going to matter. New York are clearly the better team in this matchup and their defence has really impressed me over the opening three games. We’ll see a Philly team that is desperate to avoid a sweep here, but NY’s defence is going to make life hard and that’s going to result in a slog of a contest. The under has hit in the last three games and is my bet again.
Minnesota lost home court advantage in Game 3, going down to San Antonio 108-115. While it was a relatively tight finish, which saw Minnesota get within two points in the final six minutes, San Antonio were always able to provide the answers to the hosts’ buckets, with Minny unable to slow down Victor Wembanyama. Anthony Edwards looked back to full health in this one, dropping 32 points, 14 rebounds and six assists on decent efficiency, but poor offensive nights from Jaden McDaniels, Julius Randle and Ayo Dosunmu really slowed Chris Finch’s side down. McDaniels had 17 points on 35.8% TS%, Randle dropped 12 points on 41% TS% and Dosunmu had 11 points on 45.8% TS% to bring Minnesota’s offensive rating to just 105.0, slipping to their second successive loss in the process. It was their shooting that let them down again, going just 13/19 at the rim 11/40 from midrange, despite a very handy 18 points, nine rebounds, five assists and two blocks from Naz Reid and 13 points, seven rebounds and three blocks from Rudy Gobert.
It was the Wembanyama show for San Antonio, as the superstar centre recorded the best playoff game of his young career with 39 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks to absolutely dominate the game. He was a +16 in his 37 minutes on the floor, but it was his fourth quarter that was particularly impressive, fending off a surging Minnesota team with 16 points, six rebounds and two blocks in the quarter to get SA in front in this series. Stephon Castle shot just a 44.8% TS% but recorded 12 assists on the night, and his shooting struggles were widespread. Devin Vassell, De’Aaron Fox, Julian Champagnie and Dylan Harper all shot below 50% TS% but it didn’t end up mattering, as Wemby steered his team to a very important win.
We see SA come into this game as 4.5-point favourites again, and they are my bet again. It’s clear that Wemby is by far the best player in this series and he is a +33 in his minutes on the floor in the opening three games. Minnesota have no answer to him and that’ll result in another SA win on Monday.