76ers win 15th straight victory, holding off Hawks
ATLANTA – The Associated Press
JJ Redick scored 28 points and the surging Philadelphia 76ers set a franchise record with their 15th consecutive victory, holding off the Atlanta Hawks 121-113 April 10 night to move a step closer to locking up the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference.
The 76ers overcame a tough outing for rookie star Ben Simmons, who missed the morning shootaround after coming down with the stomach flu. He still managed to put up 14 points, 10 rebounds and six assists before fouling out with 7 seconds remaining.
His teammates helped pick up the slack. Redick hit 6 of 9 from beyond the 3-point arc, while former Atlanta players Ersan İlyasova and Marco Belinelli burned their old team. İlyasova scored 26 points, Belinelli added 20 and the duo combined for nine 3-pointers.
Philadelphia went 17 of 37 beyond the arc.
Taurean Prince led the Hawks with 27 points.
In Salt Lake City, Donovan Mitchell scored 22 points and set an NBA rookie record for 3-pointers, Derrick Favors added 16 points and nine rebounds, and the Utah Jazz cruised to a 119-79 victory over the Golden State Warriors.
Jonas Jerebko scored 14 points, and Rudy Gobert and Ricky Rubio added 13 points apiece for the Jazz. Utah (48-33) won its sixth straight game and went 3-1 in the season series with Golden State.
Klay Thompson scored 23 points and Kevin Durant added 13 for the Warriors, who finished the season at 58-24. Golden State, the No. 2 seed in the West, never led in the game and shot just 35 percent from the field.
In Washington, John Wall surpassed 5,000 career assists and the Washington Wizards beat the Boston Celtics 113-101 despite Jaylen Brown’s 21 first-quarter points to remain in play for the No. 6, No. 7 or No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference.
For now, the Wizards are eighth in the East, and potentially more worrisome is this: Starting small forward Otto Porter Jr. left at halftime with a right lower leg strain and did not return.
Wall finished with 29 points and 12 assists as Washington ended its four-game losing streak. The Wizards will wrap up the regular season at Orlando.
That result, along with how Miami fares against Toronto and what Milwaukee does at Philadelphia, will determine where the Wizards, Heat and Bucks all wind up in the standings ahead of the playoffs.
Brown wound up with 27 points.
